Hi to all the fabulous kittens
I'm Elisabeth, 34, from France.
For those of you who are willing to read this
very long-winded post (I won't hold it against you if you don't), here's the story of how and why yours truly became a kitten. I never watched BtVS properly when it was on air, although I remember catching the odd episode on TV. But for some reason I never really got into it. I partly blame the dubbing, the humour got pretty much lost in translation and I find most voice actors tend to lack in the acting department. Buffy was the voice of Lois from 'Lois & Clark: the new adventures of Superman', for some reason that really threw me off... (Don't judge! Teri Hatcher was hot
) And so I never got past my mitigated first impression, even though my friend was a fan of the show and mentioned it sometimes, but I didn't feel like I was missing much. It seemed to me like the show was too centered on the Buffy/Angel romance anyway and I wasn't really interested in that.
And then earlier this year, I decided to watch the whole series after stumbling upon some screencaps online with some hilarious Buffy one-liners. I was like: Hey, wait, this is funny. This was a funny show?? I had no idea! Maybe I should give it another go? I enjoyed watching the first season and by the time I got to the end of season 2 I already considered myself a fan. BtVS really spoke to me in ways it never did at the time. Maybe I find more ways to relate now I have a bit more life experience, maybe I'm not so quick now to discard something as silly. The humour and the characters are what really sold it for me. They had some depth, or at least it was implied that they could have if you scratched behind the surface. And they were likable, yet flawed. I thought "this show is not like any other I've seen. It has heart and a unique perspective". I don't agree with all their choices in the later seasons, but on the whole this show will always be special to me now. I feel like it gives me perspective to reflect on my high school and college years. I guess at the time the issues felt a little too close to home, maybe that's why I wasn't too comfortable watching then. But now I'm at a place where I need to reflect.
I found my way to the KB after finding myself slightly obsessed with the lovely Amber Benson. (I'm sure many of you know the feeling.) I read fanfic for the first time and I was agreeably surprised to discover that I liked it a lot. At least the kind you find on DCP, with so many quality offerings, and the guidelines that I wholly subscribe to.
I'm still very interested in reading W/T fanfic that allows us to explore aspects that were neglected or just never shown on the show, or different routes that could have been taken for the existing story arcs, but I'm also very much enjoying AU fics without the constraints of the Hellmouth and all the heartbreak that follows from living in a place ruled by mutant enemies.
I lurked for about two months, then I decided to register, mostly to be able to leave feedback, but also because this looks like a lovely, respectful community that I'd be very happy to be a part of. I plan to read a lot of the fanfic here, it should take me a while.