Buffy Season Noir
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Buffy Season Noir |
| Author(s): | Anna S |
| Date(s): | 2002-2004 |
| Length: | 315,000 words |
| Genre(s): | |
| Fandom(s): | Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
| Relationship(s): | |
| External Links: | Buffy Season Noir (via Wayback)
|
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Buffy Season Noir is a virtual season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer written by Anna S. The timeline sets it as an alternative season 8 with everything branching off from "Gone".[1] This virtual season is pretty much unique because it is the work of a single author and feels so much like BtVS that it's easy to forget that Season Noir isn't canon.
Anna said about her idea:
I [...] have this desire to see the veils between dimensions actually collapse, and a season-long darkness fall over the earth, making Sunnyhell a place of noir chaos: gin joints, smoky bistros, demons and vampires walking freely. Sort of a Casablanca feel to everything, perpetually dark and misty, with a Naziesque regime, a human collaborative government a la Vichy France, and a human Underground, with some demon friendlies aiding their cause. Spike, of course, is a dark and gallant spy, working for the Underground while putting on a demonic facade for the Nazi bastards.[2]
Episodes
episode zero, "Lion Shall Lie". Word count: 26,000
episode 1, "Both Natures" (1/29/02). Word count: 23,500
episode 2, "You Were Wearing" (2/5/02). Word count: 17,800
episode 3, "Carnival" (3/8/02). Word count: 20,800
episode 4, "Until the Axle Break" (3/23/02). Word count: 19,400
episode 5, "Fundamental Things" (4/2/02). Word count: 18,100
episode 6, "Cusp" (4/25/02). Word count: 18,700
episode 7, "New World Order, pt 1" (5/27/02). Word count: 18,000
episode 8, "New World Order, pt 2" (7/07/02). Word count: 18,700
episode 9, "Every Mother's Son" (10/14/02). Word count: 18,400
episode 10, "The Winter Soldier" (10/23/02). Word count: 18,300
episode 11, "Demons" (11/12/02). Word count: 18,200
episode 12, "The Beaux Stratagem" (1/22/03). Word count: 17,300
episode 13, "Devices and Desires" (9/16/03). Word count: 18,600
episode 14, "Allies" (12/01/03). Word count: 19,100
episode 15, "Up, Down, and Strange" (3/18/04). Word count: 24,100
episode 16, A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows (in progress)
Season Noir is unfinished and episode 16 was never posted.
Reviews
Whenever I think Buffy/Spike fic is getting too fixated on smut and vampire redemption, a new author comes along who shows that there is still complexity and darkness to be found in the relationship. Last time it was Kita and Jess. This time it's Anna S. and her Season Noir of fantastic episode-like stories (two so far, more to come). Even if I didn't read her blog, I'd still know from Anna's writing that she's the kind of too-rare author who actually thinks about the characters. And not just the couple, but all of the Scooby Gang. Every thought, every piece of dialogue, every emotion and action has been carefully considered and then presented in sharp, intelligent prose that should be a neon sign to the Buffy fandom: the bar for quality fic has been most emphatically raised.
field_reports [3]
Anna's doing this fab one-woman virtual Season Noir ... each lovely piece is a full amazing episode, with at least as much resolution as TPTB are giving us these days. (Honestly, more than once this darn season, I wished Anna was writing the episodes, instead of Marti.) ... the most fascinating virtual season I've ever read.
Few people in this fandom would not sacrifice a body part to have Anna's command of language. Her plots are prettily kinky, but not spectacularly original; her style, however, will make you drool. The characters in "Season Noir" display a refreshing savagery that's missing from a lot of fiction in which the leads are all sops and evil tastes like digestive cookies.
This fic is actually as fabulous as the summary makes it sound. The author has an uncanny ability to capture the voices and characterization of the canon characters, and an equal talent for building tense, atmospheric plot. She might not have been able to complete an entire season, but 17 episodes of this fandom classic await your delectation.The Rec Center[6]
Notes
- ^ Notes at the end of Buffy Season Noir - episode zero, "Lion Shall Lie". (Accessed 10 August 2009)
- ^ Anna S. Blog entry, 23 December 2001. (Accessed 10 August 2009)
- ^ BTVS: Season Noir by Anna S. (Buffy/Spike, various) posted 31 Jan 2002
- ^ "All Jewels Have Flaws". Archived from the original on 2021-10-21. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
- ^ "Stultiloquentia's Jossverse Recs". Archived from the original on 2012-06-08. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
- ^ "The Rec Center #455". Archived from the original on 2024-11-30.