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The Conspirator's Guide to the Buffyverse: Did Joss Whedon Create BtVS?!

An Attempt at a Trans-Dimensional Analysis of our Benefactor and Suggestions for the Protection of Our Reality Against the Ever-Growing Threat of the Inter-Dimensional Growth of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

By Lijdrec - Lijdrec@hotmail.com

Recently with the episode, Normal Again, there has been an explosion of speculation concerning the 'Reality' that is or rather might be Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Much of this speculation has centered upon whether the reality that has been depicted in the television show for the last 5+ years truly is that in which Buffy ultimately belongs. Some have advanced the thought that the Hallucinatory-Reality might have been a Heavenly-Dimension created by Buffy (her essence or soul) at the time of her death in The Gift that is attempting to draw her back into her own creation. Many others have expressed the opinion that the reality that was expressed in Buffy's poison-induced hallucinatory state might be the True Reality of Buffy, and consider that this might be the reality to which Buffy should return at the end of the television show.

If indeed that is true, That Buffy Anne Summers belongs in a world free of vampires and demons, safe in the arms of loving parents, not in a world which has ultimately brought her pain and torment. Yet in that demon-free world she lies in an asylum, bound there by her devotion to her own heroism. Considering the revelations by her parents and the doctor in the asylum it is then very probable that Joss Whedon did not truly create Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In fact, That Buffy Anne Summers might have created Joss Whedon, Sarah Michelle Gellar - perhaps in her own image, Allyson Hannigan (I like That Buffy's imagination), Amber Benson (same note!) James Marsters, Nicholas Brendon, etc.... That Buffy Anne Summers may have in effect created all of US, our world, our solar system, our galaxy, our Universe! All just so she could recreate her fantasy world through a man, a Pawn we have come to know as Joss Whedon.

Several science fiction writers have explored this phenomenon in Our Reality. I am most notably reminded of the writings of Robert A. Heinlein in his novels The Number of the Beast] and The Cat Who Walks through Walls, in which the crew of the spacecraft, Gay Deceiver, travels throughout the several universes only to find that they had been created in the minds of various science fiction authors. That someone might be imagining the authors doing the actual writing that creates the new realities/universes may be an idea previously unimagined (see I'm doing it myself! This might be very dangerous?).

Apparently, That Buffy Anne Summers began her imaginings about the years 1990/91-OR (Our Reality, though most likely her timeline also) at the young age of about 8 or 9. At that time the Pawn Whedon was endowed by That Buffy with an imagination that perhaps only a child of that age might express. Unfortunately, That Buffy was not able to endow her Pawn with the necessary savvy to get her visions fully expressed in the resultant movie. Though, I am convinced that the only reason that the likes of a Kristy Swanson was cast as Buffy was that it was the way That Buffy saw herself in the future, and the choice of Luke Perry as a potential love interest must certainly have been influenced by That Buffy as a young girl's ideal in a romantic interest.

What happened to That Buffy in the intervening years between the movie and the television show, we can only speculate upon. Her Pawn put her vision on hold and apparently there was a reason for her to subdue her imagination also. We can only speculate that she might have been somehow repressed, perhaps by her parents or teachers, or perhaps she was truly happy, not in need of a fantasy world in which to escape. However with the onset of puberty her fantasy life and attendant illness must surely have gained impetus and her Pawn could no longer resist the urgings of her mind. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the television show, was born into Our Reality.

With the TV-show came the idea of multiple dimensions, primarily Demon Dimensions, populating a Buffyverse (to call it a Whedonverse is rather ludicrous since he is but a Pawn) and a mortal-plane in which rests the world of humanity and a town called Sunnydale. Additional altered realities were soon explored in the first season episode, Nightmares. But with the coming of The Wish in the third season That Buffy began a frightening look into further realities which explored the darkest sides of her psyche. Her view of herself as the hero could only be bolstered at that time by turning her fantasized best friends into vampires and then killing them along with the death of her love-interest. That she would herself choose to die at the end must have been some sort of a catharsis for her. That Buffy must assuredly have been in a very dark place at that time of her young life. But she did apparently recover from that darkness, so much so that she elected to give her life for an ersatz-sister in The Gift. Apparently, that too was a most cathartic moment and must have returned her to some sort of sanity in her reality, as all season-ending episodes have done to some degree or another.

But now in the second year of our new millennium That Buffy has woven a very strange tale of woe for us. Her personal view has again darkened and I find it most disturbing that through her Pawn she has subjected us to further explorations of the Demon Dimensions through Willow's addiction, demons which alter the conception of time - the Rwasundi, and further explorations of Altered Realities. This includes the most recent episode, Normal Again, that has given us a glimpse into the world of our Benefactor, That Buffy Anne Summers, where she is housed in an asylum. Apparently, Altered Realities may have a great part to play in the denouement of the television show this season. Such a cavalier attitude towards further creation of Altered Realities/Universes on the part of That Buffy may indeed be due to her growing mental illness. Yes, our Benefactor, our God-Creator, is insane, but it was from that insanity that we were born and her insanity has been entertaining. That we find that her insanity may be worsening and to have That Buffy in control of this dimension, Our Reality, may not bode well for us. Perhaps it is better that our Creator now forget about us and leave the universes she has created to themselves. But the news from her Pawn does not seem to indicate that there will be a cessation of her insanity, her created fantasy, in the foreseeable future.

In the meantime the Pawn Whedon has embarked on some further ramblings of his own into alternate realities with Angel: The Series, Ripper, and Buffy-inspired comics. Whether these works are his or inspired by That Buffy or co-conspirators of hers in her reality is unknown. What is important is that these writings have further created other dimensions - primarily Demon-Dimensions - as part of the overall Buffyverse. All of this has occurred at a time during an explosion of shared knowledge in Our Reality, the Internet. The influence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer upon the computer literate has resulted in a multitude of further writings known as FanFic. And therein lies the problem, the very real threat to our furthered existence, to Our Reality, and indeed to the Buffyverse to which we belong as a whole.

I shudder to think of writing, even thinking of these last few paragraphs, but for the sake of the world it must be spoken. Yet in the thinking, in the writing, or in sharing it with others, I may be precipitating the very apocalypse that I hope would be avoided. But we are possibly in a unique position to save ourselves and the Buffyverse as a whole, because we are That Buffy's Chosen People. The First Alternate Reality created by her warped mind, may she ultimately find peace.

Our status as That Buffy's Chosen People of The First Alternate Reality is a demanding one, one that we may be abusing through the proliferation of FanFic. FanFic is a generally benign endeavor on the part of those enamored with a previously written work. It involves realigning the relationships that exist in previous writings or televised plays. As such there exists no overwhelming problem in this activity. The Heinleinian Realities that are created in this form of FanFic are probably of little or no consequence to the overall Buffyverse. But the Buffyverse itself is predicated on the proliferation of several other dimensions or realities and FanFic based upon the Buffyverse has taken upon itself extra-dimensional qualities also.

The extra-dimensional qualities in Buffyverse FanFic are extant in writings that concern crossovers with the Universes or Realities of other Fictions. The worst offenders are those FanFic's that deal with relationship crossovers with other extra-dimensional works such as The X-Files, Xena: Warrior Princess and other works of Fantasy or Science Fiction. FanFic's such as these bind those dimensions and realities of these exterior original works and their attendant FanFic's to the Buffyverse. These dimensions and realities become nested beneath that of our own reality, The First Alternate Reality in the Buffyverse.

These Heinleinian Realities have substance, indeed beyond the scope of our current understanding of physics, mass may be created within them, and that mass may be great indeed. This additional mass in our Buffyverse may be reaching a critical point. It is probable that we ourselves are to blame for our Creator's mental illness. That Buffy may be experiencing her increasingly schizoid behavior in her reality due to the mass of those realities tied to the Buffyverse through our FanFic.

Recent news concerning the plot lines of episodes to come of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has also created much speculation on various Internet Message Boards as to the possibilities of Altered Realities. This is in reaction to the nearly insane news that one or more or all of the Scooby Gang will meet their death. This speculation itself is creating Altered Realities of some mass and may also be further exacerbating the mental illness of our Creator, That Buffy.

This must all stop! We are indeed feeding our Creator's mental illness, her schizophrenic hallucinations which we view through her Pawn Whedon as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As such, much of our entertainment has turned to pain and worry over this seasons show and our outlets through FanFic and the Boards simply provide a feedback to our Creator that increasingly charges her hallucinatory fantasies with even more pain and darkness. It is a never-ending loop that can only end disastrously for That Buffy and Our Reality.

That we are reaching a Critical Mass in the Buffyverse might be gauged by the degree of mental illness of our Creator. The episode, Normal Again, can give us little hope. She is extremely ill at the end, given over to her hallucinatory fantasies as the super-hero. What our Creator's sick mind will generate for us to view in the coming episodes is anyone's guess. If indeed we are here to see those episodes? With the latency period between the transmittal of That Buffy's hallucinatory fantasies to the Pawn Whedon and then his management of that vision within the confines of Mutant Enemy, the end may actually be upon us - NOW!

And so I come to my conundrum, that in the conception and writing of this scenario I may be creating the very problem of which I write. In my only desire to transmit this knowledge to save Our Reality, I may be adding the grain of sand or perhaps creating a feedback loop between Our Reality and the True Reality of That Buffy which begins the collapse of matter at the source in our Creator. The collapse of the matter that is the Buffyverse into a Black Hole would be for us the Big Crunch - The Ultimate End. Tell your friends, use word of mouth, and do not discuss this topic on Internet Message Boards that would only cause further chances for the collapse. If you are writing FanFic - STOP! We can only hope that this is not the end, that our Creator will have some semblance of a recovery, that we will see the end of this season's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and that there may be some measure of a happy ending.

I'm still in this world, are you?

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If you haven't guessed by now this was a FanFic posing as an Essay, hope you enjoyed it!

[This message has been edited by Lijdrec (edited March 16, 2002).]

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There is fresh snow on the ground
I can see where you've been walking,
and I follow in your footsteps...

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~Mel