5 x 5: Buffy's 20th, Instagram Edition
Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 4:36PM
Manuel here. One Ms Buffy Summers celebrated 20 years this past week (in her televised incarnation, at least) and I'd be remiss if I didn't add to the celebrations. That plucky Slayer and lover vampires remains my most cherished pop culture icon, infecting and influencing how I think, quip, and write. She even got to me to try my hand at video essays ("The Key to the Hellmouth") and was why I so warmed up to Stephen Dunn's wonderful Closet Monster which is a queer descendent of Joss Whedon's show (a character is, after all, named after her).
Back in July 2014, for reasons I can't even remember now, I began a silly Instagram project wherein I'd caption all the photos I'd upload on that social channel solely with episode titles from Whedon's show. It became a daily challenge (yes, there was a spreadsheet) and one which only a crazy fan could concoct. Buffy, you see, cannot help but inspire those of us who love her in sometimes absurdly enjoyable ways.
Echoing our (second) favorite slayer and in keeping with Nat's 5x5 theme, I went ahead and chose 5 (out of 140!) Instagram posts to give you a taste of how crazy us Whedonites can be...
"Angel"
Sometimes it was easier to go literal, especially when the pic also doubled as a nice Black Swan Easter egg.
"The Prom"
Other times, I aimed to echo the episode itself and there really is no better way to capture this lovely episode than to point to Buffy's "Class Protector" award.
"Hush"
What can I say? I'm a sucker for puns.
"Revelations"
That summer I was teaching a "Movie-made literature" course and, well, isn't Laura Brown a perfect pairing for that caption?
"A New Man"
It wouldn't be an Insta-challenge without the requisite selfie (there were several!) And yes, my Buffy obsession only slightly overtakes my Black Swan one.
Oh, and because we like to keep TFE SFW, I didn't include the one post that racked up the most likes. Turns out there are a lot of Randy Giles out there!
Reader Comments (5)
"Buffy, you see, cannot help but inspire those of us who love her in sometimes absurdly enjoyable ways."
How true.
Manuel -- i've told you this before but the Instagram series was such a wow. So varied and fun and COMMITTED. As all good fan projects should be.
Bonus points for that top picture being taken in the apartment I would eventually take over from when you moved out!
I love the "Oh" in the last paragraph, as if it were an afterthought. Gurl, you were dying to flaunt that Tabula Rasa pic!
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