Lessons From The Buffyverse Fandom

In every generation, there are fandoms that set the tone and shape fan spaces and industry practices of the future.

“The Buffyverse, which, in terms of cultural influence, will be for this generation what Star Trek was for the last.”
-- Jonah Goldberg, Buffy Is Here to Stay, June 04, 2004

This isn’t a post about the genius of Joss Whedon or Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I love both shows dearly, but there’s been enough digital ink spilled arguing just that, nothing I say would be new.

When I set off on this fandom deep dive, I didn’t really expect to uncover anything revolutionary, so I was surprised to discover how early the show and fandom was at making use of online spaces and the way the audience and creator feedback loops operated. Current fandom discourse appears to have roots in the way Buffy fans engaged with the show and its ships, and the social justice framing to support preferences. Even fan studies, which I’ve criticized in the past, were plenty and even manifested into recurring conferences, and a peer-reviewed Journal of Whedon Studies.

EARLY ONLINE INTERACTIONS

When the show premiered in 1997, social media wasn’t a thing. Fandoms would usually find themselves on usenet or mailing lists, which were in use in Buffy fandom as well. Cast and crew would drop by plenty of the fan-run boards and mailing lists, but The Bronze was the most notable of fan spaces. Originally hosted on the WB’s official site, it served as an official, sanctioned space for fans to congregate and chat with one another. Here, cast and crew earned the status of “VIPs” to validate their credentials—an early blue check system, if you will.

When the show left the WB, the posting board was shut down unceremoniously, leaving fans scrambling. As the show was no longer a WB property, they had no interest in hosting discussions and catering to the fans. There was nothing in it for them. This should be a reminder, once again, that if you build a community on someone else’s turf, it may be taken away from you.

Eventually, the UPN set up an official board to replace it, but a separate fan-run entity called The Bronze Beta rose up first and ended up as the primary forum for fans and the VIP drop-ins continued.

What always stood out to me about Buffy as a series is that the active fandom was always aware of who the writers and crew were. Their individual voices and styles were recognized, and fan favourites were followed from project to project. I didn’t realize that this was down to the fact that these people interacted with fans on a regular basis, but it certainly explains why these attachments were fostered.

Combing through the archives revealed many instances of outright idolatry and fandom for specific writers. One that stands out to me is Drew Goddard, who joined the writing staff late in the show’s run but became a favourite almost immediately, likely based on his willingness to play ball with the fans. Before any of his episodes even aired he had a fansite and merch devoted to him, as well as some tongue-in-cheek fanfiction.

Buffy fandom was very keen on spoilers, and there were multiple sites dedicated to collecting them. This was permitted for a while but clamped down on for the last few years (more on this later), and an attempt to encourage fans to stay away from spoilers involved Goddard promising to french kiss everyone who remained unspoiled.

Drew Z. Greenberg says: (Wed Apr 30 16:32:41 2003) Don't you know about the kissing reward you get for remaining spoiler-free??! I don't want to give too much away, but let's just say that Drew Goddard has been practicing to hand out the reward when the time comes, and kids? I don't want to say who he's been practicing ON, but, um... he's gotten REALLY good.

Drew Goddard says: (Wed Jul 16 22:22:29 2003) With regard to the French-kissing—I’m happy to report that so far 94 lucky fans have received their promised Goddard make-out session. If you did manage to remain spoiler-free and have not yet received your reward, just sit tight, we’re working our way down the list.
Also, I should add that I am allowing people to “double down” with their kiss and try to remain spoiler-free for this season of Angel. I think we all know what that means for you if you happen to pull it off...

The interactions weren’t cyber-only as there were yearly Posting Board Parties hosted in Los Angeles, which benefitted charity, seeing some cast and crew hanging out with fans. By 2002, this had become more of a promotional affair, with photographers invited to document the stars mingling.

Anthony Stewart Head, Alyson Hannigan, Seth Green, Nicholas Brendon and David Boreanaz attend the first Posting Board Party at Planet Hollywood on February 14th, 1998. The show was in its second season at the time.

Part of the fun of the posting board wasn’t just interacting with the crew, but being a fly on the wall of their interactions with one another. Sometimes drama unfolded. One of the instances that stands out the most to me that I’m shocked remained buried is when stunt coordinator Jeff Pruitt went on a tirade against Sarah Michelle Gellar and Whedon in spring of 2000. Pruitt blamed Gellar for his firing, and went so far as sharing a self-insert story in the form of a parable, with the intended audience of Whedon himself, who apparently wasn’t returning his calls, and anyone else who was interested in his side of the story.

The parable is a grandiose tale wherein a Knight gains favour from the King and serves him well, only to find the Princess colluding with a General to have him and a handmaiden he is in love with ousted, and unfortunately for him, she succeeds. It’s a quite transparent tale with clear targets, and he did not take well to being challenged on the boards as to why he was sharing it publicly.¹ Whedon and other writers indirectly poked fun at him on the boards, and it’s a wild ride to read through. It all reads like immature subtweeting and indirects, suggesting perhaps today’s online toxicity was always in our future.

Had this happened five years later, it would’ve been all over online gossip communities such as ONTD. Had it occurred decade later, it would probably have unfolded on Twitter and been picked up and syndicated by news outlets, perhaps he might’ve even done the podcast circuit. But it likely would’ve ruined his reputation going forward. As it was, he maintained access to the boards and was even featured in many of the DVD extras that were filmed after his departure. A sign, perhaps, that when things are allowed to blow over, reconciliation is possible?

REVERSE FAN SERVICE

Writers—including Whedon himself—would frequent the boards to take the temperature of fans’ opinions and receive their criticism and praise. This did influence the show, but not in the way one might expect. Writer Jane Espenson said reading what the fans said, “did affect the show sometimes; if we saw that a lot of people had guessed where we were headed, we could change it.”

In present day, executives paying attention to fandom often leads to them bending to their wishes, so it makes sense that you would expect this crew to operate the same way. But that’s not how Whedon operated. In a way, he engaged in reverse fan service, intentionally delivering pain and heartbreak, and was frequently referred to as evil by his fans.

Whedon was known for wielding a monkey’s paw approach to audience desires, giving you exactly what you wanted, either when you didn’t want it anymore or in a way that made it beyond unappealing. You wanted Buffy and Angel to get together? Let them have a tender moment and he loses his soul and goes evil. You want him to get his soul back? Sure thing, but it will be right after he opens a portal to a hell dimension and Buffy has to kill him to save the world. You were rooting for Xander to reciprocate Willow’s feelings? Okay, but they’ll be cheating on their significant others that you’ve grown to love. You wanted Oz to come back? He will, but only after Willow has discovered she isn’t straight and has a new romantic interest in Tara. You want Wesley and Fred to get together? You’ll get one episode’s act of happiness before Fred’s body is taken over by a powerful prehistoric god, demolishing her soul in the process.

Being overly effusive about a plot line or a pairing on the boards might result in getting exactly the opposite of what you wanted. Those who didn’t care were the winners, ultimately. As Steven DeKnight said, “the Jossverse is built on a bedrock of pain and suffering,” and that suffering is on behalf of the characters and the audience.

The interaction between writers and fans became incredibly fraught when season six rolled around. It was, and remains, a very controversial season.Many active fans of today seem to absolutely love it, but looking through old forums, it was not popular. It’s a muddled piece of storytelling weighed down by mixed metaphors. Magic use goes from being a stand in for sexuality to being a substance abuse issue. It’s dark and depressing, which makes sense considering it’s following a resurrected Buffy trying to find her footing in the world after having been at peace in the afterlife, but that makes it less enjoyable.

Some people liked it because they felt it represented depression well on screen—others didn’t like it for that same reason, as the show was an escape from their own mental health struggles. Some enjoyed it because Spike/Buffy finally became canon and the show delivered plenty of shirtless James Marsters. There were enough so-called “redemptionists” who believed that Spike could become worthy of Buffy’s love even as a soulless vampire, who saw the relationship as progress, even though it was mutually abusive and Buffy’s depression was exacerbated rather than alleviated from their romps. It was still seen as a step in the right direction.

Marti Noxon, the showrunner while Whedon was busy running Firefly, received much of the blame for the darker tone of the season. I encountered much of the rage in my research and can confirm that fans were not holding back. Detailed in Marshall Sella’s 2002 New York Times piece, one viewer’s complaint is cited,

“I think Marti Noxon should be on BtVS. And I think Drusilla and Spike should tie her up and torture her, then kill her in the most painful way possible. Then hacking her body beyond recognition so there could be no possible way to make her rise from the grave. Then they should STAMP on the bits.”

There is something to be said about the female showrunner being blamed for unwelcome developments when it had always been made clear that Whedon plotted seasons ahead of time. He often received a pass, with audiences only really turning on him when the mainstream media started paying attention to what actors said about working with him. For fans who paid attention, though, the evidence was there all along.

Part of the fan rage directed at Noxon was to do with the two-punch of Tara being killed by a stray bullet and the attempted rape of Buffy by Spike. These two things happened in the same episode.

When it comes to Tara’s untimely demise, Whedon had said he was planning on it since the end of the previous season. Amber Benson, who portrayed Tara, was told early on, so she wasn’t caught unawares. Perhaps this advance knowledge is why the news had spread online, and fans expressed concern at these spoilers, but the rumours were repeatedly disputed by the writers. Noxon said the character wasn’t going anywhere. DeKnight, who wrote the episode where Tara gets killed posted on the boards,

(Fri Jan 25 20:29:19 2002) As for Tara getting killed OVER MY DEAD BODY!
(Fri Apr 26 22:34:53 2002) Seriously, I love Amber [Benson] in a deep unnatural way. Anything bad happens to her, I’ll leave the show. Or kill Greenberg. Either way.

DeKnight was a guest on the Buffy-focused radio show the Succubus Club after the episode aired, and was tasked with defending himself. He said, “I expect people on the board know that I lie.” Later on, he went on the board to apologize for upsetting people by being flippant about Tara’s death. It’s worth noting, that neither he or any other writers ever apologized for killing her, but rather for the upset this caused fans. This is the type of back and forth that seems habitual today, but was likely very strange at the time.

I don’t think the feeling of betrayal this can be underestimated when it comes to the uproar from fans. It’s not just that they were invested in a love story that was cut short, but that they believed they could trust what the writers told them on the boards, if not in interviews. This type of violation was a stark wake up call that they were never insiders or cherished confidantes: they were the audience, and they were treated as such.

Tara’s death caused a big uproar in part because of these false promises, but also because it seemed to fall under the “Bury Your Gays” trope. But did it? In a show where everyone is expendable—including the titular character who is killed twice—is killing one of the lesbians verboten? If anything, the Buffyverse has proven to be an “Anyone Can Die”-type of ‘verse. As writer David Fury said, “Tara doesn’t die because she’s a lesbian; Tara dies because it will break our hearts—and that’s what [Joss is] looking to do.”

A few years later, Whedon shared this message before the Angel episode wherein Fred dies aired. Maybe he learned that a heads up was a good idea, though this type of message surely constitutes a sort of spoiler.

As mentioned earlier, the same episode in which Tara was killed also contained an attempted rape. This was seen as a natural progression for some viewers, and a shocking, out-of-character move by others. As one fan said, “I felt it was entirely out of character and a betrayal to my own emotions to believe he could ever try to rape Buffy.”

But Spike was a soulless vampire at the time, neutered by a chip that prevented him from harming humans. Except for Buffy, whose resurrection made her an anomaly, and he took advantage of that, both physically and mentally abusing her throughout their relationship. Yet, he received more vocal empathy than Buffy. He was seen as the victim by many. There is a belief that the reason they went so far as to portray him attempting to rape Buffy was to remind the viewers what he was capable of, since nothing had stuck.

Noxon said,

“We’ve made our case. Certain people get it and understand it, and other people are going to be Spike-shippers² (a term for those in favor of the Spike-Buffy relationship) no matter what. That's in no small part due to the charisma of the actor. It's hard to hate him, but I think I feel like we've made a pretty good case for the fact that they probably shouldn't ride off into the sunset together, at least not the way things are now.”

Part of the uproar was also that fans felt they had been misled by the promotion of Spike/Buffy in promotion and official merch.

In the same appearance that DeKnight was tasked with defending him lying about Tara’s death, he was also asked to explain how they could justify the attempted rape when there was Spuffy merch for sale. DeKnight didn’t have an answer to this question, and simply emphasized that the relationship was never meant to be aspirational. It was violent and degrading, used as a self-harming mechanism on Buffy’s behalf.

The writers kept saying this was a toxic relationship that shouldn’t be romanticized or emulated: the merch said otherwise.

FAN DISCOURSE & INTERPRETATION

The use of social justice frameworks in fandom discourse and to justify preferences has been a bane on modern fandom. It also seems to have been prevalent back in the day. This was a surprise to me. Petty fan and ship wars have always been a thing, but I was surprised at how similar to today’s discourse things were back then.

Some of this ties into the rage at Spike’s alleged character assassination. As one fan on Reddit explained,

“A lot of the Buffy/Spike fans were also heavily committed for ideological reasons, assuming that Whedon entirely shared their politics, to the theory that ‘Buffy’ would eventually end by revealing that vampies and demons weren’t Evil with a capital E, but that the conflict between them and humans was due to centuries of bigotry and cultural misunderstanding, and that a Buffy/Spike romantic happy ending would act as the in-universe catalyst for a full reconciliation between all sentient beings in the Buffyverse, human, undead and magical. They saw this as being an admirable anti-racist/anti-homophobic statement, and there was a lot of very influential meta written about how Spike was a metaphor for unjustly persecuted black or gay men, and Buffy/Spike was a ‘queer relationship’. So by writing Buffy/Spike negatively, Noxon was accused not just of having a disdain for romance, but of being racist/homophobic.”

With that in mind, the rage over the attempted rape makes more sense. This wasn’t a soulless vampire behaving as expected; this was an attack on their worldview. Nevermind that this directly led to Spike’s intentional, conscious redemption; that it happened in the first place was the problem.

This ideological angle was also noticeable in old forums, especially those with a more philosophical bent. There was talk about the show “desegregating” because the demons became more sympathetic than the humans. There was discussion about “miscegenation” when talking about demon/human relationships, and that this suggested that anti-demon bigotry was similar to racism.

This was also echoed in the mailing list, where I saw someone claim that being reminded that Spike was a vampire and didn’t deserve the same regard as humans, “I am reminded of the stupid comments I heard while growing up in the south.”

Claiming that homophobia and racism were the underlying reasons and drivers as to why a straight, white couple couldn’t have a romantic happy ending, or why a straight white demon isn’t being treated well enough, is an example of what I’ve come to call the meme-ing of bigotry. This idea that a human/vampire relationship was queer and deserved to be defended on the basis of it reminds me of my own fandom transgression: wherein I was told that not supporting a publicly straight artist was “making things worse for all LGBT artists.” This is a pattern of appropriating real concerns to defend preferences, and framing the opposition as morally abject.

The problem with this type of moralistic framing is that it flattens the text and the potential readings of it. Lynne Edwards, who taught a course on Buffy at a Pennsylvania Liberal Arts College said, “The very fact thirteen different people can watch the exact same episode and take thirteen different meanings from it makes it a crucial text.” But the social justice framing removes the richness of the text by making a single reading moral and ethical, and all others an act of bigotry.

A brief summary of fandom discourse.

A less fraught fan discourse problem is the retcon of the show’s history. One of the common refrains is that the show was on the bubble every season, and they never knew whether it was going to continue. This is incorrect. Yes, the first season was a midseason replacement, so a pick-up wasn’t guaranteed in the first place. But by season two, the show was a success. There were talks of a spin-off. There was a big marketing and promotions push, from a Barq’s root beer tie in to 1-800 commercials, and Gellar hosted SNL two years in a row to promote the show. The show was safe until season five, and there was heavy foreshadowing for what would happen then.

And season five, well. It ended with a bang, and the WB treated it like a series finale. But if you were online, if you followed any entertainment news, you would know that the show was picked up by UPN for two more seasons. Yet, you rarely see discussions of the season five finale without someone piping up and saying that no-one knew the show was continuing. Maybe those individuals didn’t, but to apply it across the board is incorrect.

INDUSTRY INTERFERENCE

This wouldn’t be a post of mine if I didn’t do some digging into how corporate interference affected the show and the fandom.

The show has often been criticized for its lack of representation of people of colour. So I was surprised to learn that Whedon wanted the character of Cordelia to be black, but the network was allegedly nervous about portraying interracial dating, which meant he’d be limited in the character dynamics he could portray. It didn’t seem like a battle worth fighting, not before the show was even picked up. Some sites claim that Bianca Lawson, who went on to portray Kendra, was offered the role and turned it down. So perhaps Whedon was prepared to fight the network with the right actress, or the lore is incorrect.

Later on, Whedon and his crew did go against the network by introducing Tara as a love interest for Willow. In order to get around censorship, magic was used as a metaphor for lesbianism. The two of them performed spells together late at night, and one particular spell casting scene was an overt reference to sex. They dated for almost a whole season before they were shown kissing on screen. That was the early 2000s. By the time the show moved to UPN, they were allowed more leeway in their portrayal.

In an early interview with TV Guide, Whedon repeated his mantra that, “There will never be a ‘Very Special Episode’ of Buffy,” yet, two years later, the show sought to take advantage of a government subsidy provided to shows that portrayed an anti-drug messaging. The script for the season four episode “Beer Bad” was submitted, but it was rejected for funding as, “it was otherworldly nonsense, very abstract and not like real-life kids taking drugs. Viewers wouldn’t make the link to our message.”

In season three, two episodes were pre-empted because of the Columbine High School massacre. Neither of these episodes featured a school shooting, though episode 3x18 came closest, with a student caught with a rifle on campus, intending to commit suicide.

More surprising is the pre-emption of the season finale. First, they asked for things to be cut, which was discussed on the Bronze board and Whedon stated he had no issue with. But then they decided to pull it entirely. According to WB president, Jamie Kellner,

“Depicting acts of violence at a high-school graduation ceremony, even fantasy acts against a 60-foot serpent and vampires, we believe, is inappropriate to broadcast around the actual dates of these time-honored traditions.”

Both episodes still aired in Canada, which meant they were out there, and Whedon got in trouble for encouraging fans to “bootleg the puppy.” Fans campaigned in support of the show. Eventually, both episodes were scheduled at the end of summer, just before the start of season four.

Then there’s the cease and desists. Early internet message boards were meticulous about not sharing copyrighted content, and Buffy boards were no exception. This included images, magazine scans or even write-ups of interviews. This seems an almost quaint concern today.

Someone who claimed to have received a cease-and-desist from FOX and pulled all content was a fan who went by Angel X and ran a message board and spoiler page. If the provided information is correct, she started her Buffy site at the age of 14 and lived in Arizona. She ran multiple sites and boards, and was referred to as the “Board Momma” for one of the more popular boards. It was the spoilers that FOX had a problem with, as she frequently had detailed, accurate plot points and on occasion full on transcripts of episodes available early. It could be my innate cynicism, but I find it suspicious that a teenager with no industry connections somehow had such reliable spoiler sources. And she was only asked to stop sharing content before the final season. Not to be too conspiratorial, but I wouldn’t be surprised if their sharing of spoilers had been sanctioned originally, but was opposed when the show moved to UPN as it might be seen as a market substitute, deterring people from making the effort to get UPN to follow the final season.

THE END?

I started my research and this post long before the possibility of a reboot (continuation? spin off? revival?) was on the table, but it feels like it should be addressed. One of the things I realized while going through old forum posts that I would not have enjoyed being in the fandom while the show aired. So that’s colouring my dislike for the potential revival. Think of the fan war/discourse I’ve detailed above, and imagine it multiplied to match today’s climate. What a nightmare.

There’s also the problem of plot. The conceit of the show from the beginning was that a singular girl was the slayer, tasked with fighting vampires and demons, she was “activated” with super strength and accelerated healing when the previous slayer died, they were connected to previous slayers in a way and had a degree of clairvoyance.

But the show ended with every potential slayer being activated at the same time. It changed the destiny and future of every girl who was a potential slayer: they were all granted the power, and the responsibility of fighting alone was gone. This action also gave the whole series more meaning, and it explained why Buffy’s journey was the one that we followed.

To return to the idea of following a slayer in this context makes no sense. What might work would be looking at the consequences of gifting young, unprepared girls with this type of unlimited power when they may not be able to handle it. One episode of Angel season five covers this: Dana, a young woman, is locked in a mental institution. She is traumatized and has become violent and powerful, heavily drugged because she cannot be controlled. She is experiencing the deaths of past slayers as if they were her own memories, exacerbating her psychosis. She goes on a rampage, trying to avenge them and herself. How many Danas are there in the ‘verse?

That would be interesting, dealing with the fallout of what seemed like an amazing solution to the ongoing problem of all the world’s evils being fought by a single teenage girl.

To return to the verse with a focus on a new slayer would require something magnificent to make it worthwhile. And considering the modern era’s approach to fan service over story service, I’m incredibly skeptical. So if it happens, I certainly won’t be engaging with the fandom. If nothing else, I find it more valuable to observe things in retrospect with perspective instead of getting mired in the day to day drama. Perhaps a follow up to this post will appear in due time. Until then, this will have to do.

---

A deeper dive into my personal perspectives on the show can be found in my podcast appearances with

Idolcast Podcast

. We covered the show’s seven seasons—with an episode covering Angel’s five seasons in the can, ready to drop anytime.

---

1. The complaints about him make sense in context because during his time as stunt coordinator, there were multiple occasions during which the stand-ins were incredibly obvious. He seemed to consider Gellar’s stand-in the real star of the show, and wanted her to be front and center. The General in the story that opposed him is meant to be the longstanding DP of the show, and it makes sense that there would be tension between the two if Pruitt kept choreographing fights in a way that made coverage difficult.

2. That’s an incorrect use of the term but since this quote is over 20 years old I think we can let it slide.