Title: In a Band
Creator: thenewbuzwuzz
Era/season: s2, “Becoming”
Band, n…
1. A fillet, strap, or any narrow ligament with which a thing is encircled, or fastened, or by which a number of things are tied, bound together, or confined; a fetter…..
3. That which serves as the means of union or connection between persons; a tie. “To join in Hymen’s bands.” Shak….
7. A company of persons united in any common design, especially a body of armed men. “Troops of horsemen with his bands of foot.” Shak.
8. A number of musicians who play together upon portable musical instruments….
12. A bond. [Obs.] “Thy oath and band.” Shak.
13. Pledge; security. [Obs.] Spenser.
I’m aware that Spike and Buffy might be kind of hard to spot in this image. I’m afraid I did that on purpose.
Okay. Authorial intent warning; I’m about to explain the joke, or try.
The “Enemies with Benefits” theme got me thinking about unconventional relationship labels, and it was a small step from there to thinking about relationships that are ambiguous and undefined. It can be fun to read that sort of thing into Spuffy, being a submarine couple who don’t do straightforward things like dating (in TV canon, that is). As impalementation argues and as Myrabeth’s Spike mentions, it’s certainly possible to read Spuffy as a very important relationship where romance isn’t the point, in the big picture (although romance is there and can, naturally, also be very fun). lilyginnyblackv2’s meta “Season 7 Spuffy and the Queerplatonic Relationship” is sort of relevant… though, of course, more relevant to the actual season 7 than to “Becoming” — I admit that the truce is arguably the most clear-cut Spuffy relationship ever. I mean, they explicitly negotiated terms. (But also, “in a band” has great ambiguity potential, and I low key want Facebook to offer it as a relationship status.) The bottomline is, I was thinking about things that are only defined by what they’re not, or defined by words that don’t exactly describe them. Thus the blank space whose shape the flowers hint at.
ETA: in case Spuffy still aren’t visible, here’s a cheat sheet.
I went to town on this page that lists flower meanings in the Victorian flower language.
Violet (White): Let’s take a chance
Columbine (Purple): Resolved to win
Geranium (Pencilled): Ingenuity
Clematis: Artifice (ingenuity)
Straw Flower: Agreement
Olive Branch: Peace
Nasturtium: Patriotism, Victory in battle
And now you know what flowers I was trying to draw. They’re not at all to scale, as you might have noticed. Couldn’t deal with the concept of size in addition to what I was doing. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Other credits:
Traced a screencap from kissthemgoodbye.net.
Reference photos for drawing the plants: by georgesgewels, philip_goddard, stewdean, tanakawho, Robert Mitchem, christian_hamacher, (loosely) wildflowersflorida, and this nasturtium photo on nicholasjv.blogspot.com that I’m not sure was taken by the blog author.
The dictionary definitions are from websters1913.com. Hat tip to jjhunter for the rec.
Originally posted at https://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/695129.html
