Not for Top 5, but for our originating Whedonverse, BtVS. It's great to see all the new offerings being shared here in our latest session. Also thanks to katekat1010 for the great new layout we're sporting! Send her some love!

If you'd like to see buffyversetop5 make it to 10 years too, keep making those rec lists. Keep us in mind as you find things you enjoy throughout the year. An easy way to keep track of things is to click posts into Memories with a Top 5 tag so that they can be more easily put together into lists at year-end. Also, recs you make throughout the year can be recycled here when we open again.

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We’ll be reopening for our Classic Recs Weekend on October 29, 2008, so if you missed posting anything this session, you've got a spot reserved for it then!

I think (and someday this may actually turn into an essay) that some of the most interesting fanfic can be metafiction, self-reflexively commenting on it's own genre while at the same time telling compelling, fun, beautiful stories.  Not heavy handed, not weird, just lovely. So, here are 5 fics that illustrated some aspect of metafiction for me this year....

1. Minutes of the Watchers' Council, Cleveland Branch (Selected Highlights) (Gunn/Xander, FRT)
by mireille719
Summary: Report from holiday committee: There will be absolutely no mistletoe included in the holiday decorations. Anyone found hanging mistletoe in an attempt to embarrass the Watchers will be summarily executed reprimanded.
How does it fit? Mir plays with style here, turning meeting minutes into something kind of adorable, definitely hugely funny, and establishes narrative without traditional narrative techniques.

( this way for the rest. )

1.Overheated by teand - All – I do love the snarkily confident Cordelia Chase, and her meeting in this ficlet with Dean Winchester from SPN was perfect..

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Some icons and banners that struck my eye this year.

100 AtS icons by fearher
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New communities (that have already been recced) opened for discussion and news about the Buffy and Angel comics relaunch last year. There were also some other celebratory events.
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Let's put the discussions aside for a moment and just enjoy what some fans have written, inspired by the new comic books – whether irreverently funny or dark and painful.

Netherlands to Nepal by stormwreath. Possibly the least sexy explicit femslash story ever written – and that's a compliment. Willow finds a way to help Dawn, but it involves getting naked and when your lover is 50 feet tall, there are certain... complications. Hilarious ones. (Willow/Dawn, NC17)

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1. Inara and Mal by myrasis - All - #20 – I like the way the cropping makes it seem as if she's looking at him secretly so no one else will notice.

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Since the last buffyversetop5 I've made 5 AWESOME friends through LJ. These guys are all Buffy/Joss Fans and ONE I even made here! Here's my top 5 friends and something they did this year..

1. aurey09 - I think I read her fic first, and then friended her. Aurey09 has been an amazing friend, someone that I talk to on a daily basis now. Her love and knowledge of Buffy is vast. One of my favorite fics? Almost Acceptance (Spike, Giles) PG.

2. athenamuze - We met on this comm! Since then we've been able to meet in person twice! We even got to go to the Buffy house and Buffy's highschool this year! One of my favorite fics? A podcast audio drama. A Winter's Tale (G)

You know those little stories that manage to get inside you and then either punch you in the gut or make you laugh until it hurts, all within a 100 words? And you know that delightful little community open_on_sunday that gives people a specific prompt once a week? Obviously, choosing only five drabbles out of literallly hundreds is barely scratching the surface, but... here's five favourites.

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I always love fics that manage to take what actually happened on-screen and give it a more-or-less subtle twist that completely changes everything. So here's five canon rewrites I really enjoyed in 2007.

Braids by ubiquirk is one of many great fics to come out of the dawn_all_along ficathon, this one taking on "Passion." Guh. (Gen, PG13)

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It's always a bit nerve-wracking reccing WIPs. It's always a bit nerve-wracking reading them, for that matter. If it's something we like, we so want it to be finished and it's not always posssible. People move on or RL circumstances get in the way. However, here are five WIPs I've really enjoyed reading in 2007. I hope they will be finished, but even if they aren't, I'm still very glad to have read them.

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Just a reminder to everyone that buffyversetop5 closes tomorrow night, so if you have any final lists, start posting them!

During this session Top 5 has passed its 300th member, and if we get a few more rec posts we should hit 600 before we close.

Just a reminder as well that The Community List remains available for any mods to pimp their Whedonverse communities, on or off LJ.

One of my first LJ friends, and in fact the reason I ventured out here at all, is antennapedia. I have learned so much, and seen so many new possibilities from her writing. Here are my favorites from her numerous 2007 offerings, in no particular order:

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1. Girl Anachronism by rae1013 - All – I thought that the frenetic, disjointed pace of the song and vid did well in presenting River as a confused, frightened and yet funny character. Given the level of angst in her storyline I rather liked this approach to looking at the lighter side of things without overlooking her problems.

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1. Spike on AtS – It’s All About Angel by elisi - All – Lengthy discussion of the various Spike and Angel issues. I particularly enjoyed her discussion of Spike and Connor.

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They made me go "awwwww".  Even if it was a, "that's sexy, awww."

1. What's That, Boy? (You Say Timmy's Down the Well?) (Xander/Riley, PG) by electricalgwen
Sumary:  Written for obsessedmuch who requested a future setting, happy couple, and a puppy. This is set rather vaguely in a future where evil is still being fought by our heroes; Riley heads up a demon-hunting/Slayer-supporting military-type unit under the control of the Council rather than the government.
Why should you read it?  PUPPY!!  Besides, Xander/Riley, in my reading experience, is an awfully cute pairing anyway ;)

( read onward for the cuddly...and kinda hot )

1. A Little Bit Louder and a Little Bit Worse (Xander/Connor, PG13) by allyndra
Summary: Mysterious stranger with a warning to deliver? Haven’t we heard this one before?
Why you should read it:  Because it's really lovely!  No, seriously.  Xander's definitely the world weary one here, and Connor's filled with feline grace and... there's snarking.  It's yum.

( 4 other fics that you need to read...really )

1. Do Not Go Gentle by calove - NC-17 – Spike acquires a prized possession in the late 70s, and not the one you're thinking of. Fabulous Spike voice, a truly great read.
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1. Love at First Type by apreludetoanend - All – Amusing set of animated icons. Nice single frame ones as well.

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1 . Two Fusilliers by tabaqui - NC-17 – One of the great things about the S/A relationship is that sense of long association that gives things between them a certain inevitability. I think that’s played with a lot here, as well as their fundamental differences.

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Zoë's strong, loyal, cunning, and one of the most kickass characters ever. And here are five stories from 2007 that reminded me why I love her so much:

( top 5 Zoë fics )

1. Mortality by shapinglight - G – Giles gets unexpected news, and it doesn’t sink in right away. Spoilers for BtVS S8.

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