Yay, a Mark site that's still taking suggestions! :)

I'm not even sure that it's even possible for you to play this anymore, but I'll put in my 2 cents for Grim Fandango.

It's an old-fashioned, story-driven adventure game, thematically and stylistically combining Mexican Day of the Dead with film noir. The story is interesting, the dialogue is smart, the voice acting awesome, and the music is amazing! I suspect you'd love it. :)

It also won game of the year awards in whichever year it was released, and I'm totally dating myself here cos I think it was in the 90s...

Just on a total whim, I decided to re-watch Fool for Love tonight, and then on a total whim decided to look at MarkWatches, which I hadn't really kept up with since he finished with the Buffyverse.

And lookie here! A Buffy re-watch! And not just ANY Buffy re-watch, but the exact same episode!

Woohoo! :)

Since Mark concluded Buffy and Angel, I've read SOOO much Buffy fanfic it's not even funny, so now I have all these alternative universes and alternative stories jangling around in my head. It's great. I never thought I'd like fanfiction (bit of a literature snob), but I have to say, even if I'm less than impressed with some of the writing, I LOVE how different people come up with different interpretations, different angles, different characterizations. It always tickles me when someone manages to find a nook or cranny in the existing story and stuff something in there that makes total sense in terms of canon, and you're like "why did I never think of that?" I read stories about what happened after the last episode or before the first episode. There's tons of fanfic out there about the Fanged Four and their lives before they all showed up in Sunnydale. Or about how Spike was turned. Or time travel fics where Buffy goes back in time to meet either Spike or Angel or both. I especially love some of those fics where young Buffy and old Buffy trade places and you can really see the huge amount of growth and changes she underwent in a few short years.

I just recently read one where Buffy meets up with Spike in LA during the time she ran away from Sunnydale after she killed Angel and sent him to hell and was waitressing as "Anne." What a neat idea! And there's tons of other "gaps" in canon where more stories could be told. So it's a never-ending Buffyverse out there :)

Speaking of which, what's up with the comics? Are we on season 9? And when is Mark going to be reviewing Buffy comics?

Angel just bores me sob I'M SORRY

Right there with ya!

Write a fic! :)

For me, Spuffy, easily. The torrentuous (is that even a word?), conflicted, painful and ecstatic, mutually abusive and mutually constructive love affair that tore them both to pieces and built them up into new versions of themselves. Where good is not always good and bad is not always bad. It's just epic. :)

Reading the fanfics, I'm warming to Spangel and even to Spike/Angel/Buffy. Lotsa room for drama in that triangle! :)

Another fanfic pairing which was odd at first but grew on me later was Spike/Tara.

Often, the odd pairing fanfics are most fun because it's interesting to see how the story gets to a point where it's credible that the pairing would happen at all. Of course, not all fanfics manage to pull off the credible pairing...

I'm rot13-ing the following not because it contains specific spoilers, but some musings about fanfic patterns and themes, and I'm not sure whether it would count as an expectation spoiler, since Mark said he'd be reading fanfic in the future (though this isn't even about any specific piece of fanfic, just fanfic in general). So, no specific spoilers ahead, just fanficdom musings:

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Nabgure jrveq (NAABLVAT!!!) cnggrea vf gur jubyr znqr-hc inzcver yber, jvgu snasvpf ercyrgr jvgu pevrf bs "Zvar!" naq "Lbhef!" naq pynvzvat naq puvyqr naq syrqtr naq zlfgvpny inzcver zngvat prerzbavrf naq ovgrf univat fcrpvny cbjref. Ubarfgyl, vg znxrf zl fxva penjy, V qba'g xabj jul... vg vafgnagyl qrzbgrf gur snasvp gb oneryl ornenoyr, naq V fbzrgvzrf fgvpx gb vg vs gur fgbel vf bgurejvfr vagrerfgvat, ohg guvf punenpgrevmngvba vf FB sne sebz gur bevtvany Ohsslirefr nf gb eraqre gur svp nyzbfg haernqnoyr sbe zr.

Willow/Tara grew on me on re-watch and as I was reading along on Mark Watches. I had no previous understanding of the cultural significance of this relationship, I had no idea it was the first on TV in many ways. Also, Tara grew on me on rewatch and I appreciate her character more through other people's analysis of her. At first, I remember I was just meh about Tara because she was too timid, and I also didn't feel the attraction between them on screen. So for me Tara stating "I'm yours" to Willow was oddly jarring because it seemed too much too soon, but maybe it's just that I'm not good with subtlety. Could be why I prefer Spuffy; Spike is anything but subtle.

I also liked Willow/Oz.

I kept waiting for Joyce/Giles to happen after Band Candy, but I suppose that would have been too obvious for the writers, which I actually kind of admire.

Yay! :)

OK, I just read this quote in one of the Season 8 comics (issue 37):

(A letter writer is quoting Joss Whedon):

"What I basically told (James and Sarah) was, 'Play the romance, be proud of him, love him when you say you love him, love her when you say she doesn't love you. Forget about the crumbling world, for that period of time it doesn't exist.'"

Is that what you were referring to?

Do you also notice this disturbing trend that all the female actors LOST weight while on the show, and all the male actors GAINED weight? What's up with that?

OMG, I actually had a DREAM in which I was comparing and contrasting early episodes and late episodes of Buffy, and reflecting on how people here have pointed out that Xander went through a character change, how he became kinder and more mature and less entitled-acting, and I was all, hey, I can see that now. All in a dream.

I had a dream about XANDER. *goggle*

Christ on a stick, why can't I have dreams about SPIKE?

I would totally watch Electro!Gwen and Dawn in tight leather outfits steal things. But there must be snark! :)