Fanboys! Watch the Fanvid of Joy!

In honour of Joss Whedon’s birthday (well, okay, it was two days ago, but “‘Day’” is a vestigial mode of time measurement based on solar cycles. It’s not applicable…”), here’s a shiny fanvid celebrating the Whedonverse, with clips from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and Doctor Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog, set to David Poe’s song Joy.

It’s a happy, silly, upbeat, and fun vid made of squee, much like the Buffy and Angel cast fanvids to the songs Smile and Dance Like an Idiot.

The next paragraph contains spoilers for Faith’s character arc in Buffy and Angel, so skip it if you don’t want to know what happens.

Faith’s arc in this video is quite interesting. It’s very subtle, and may not even have been intentional on the vidder’s part. She begins the video as a villain, resisting Angel changing the channel on the TV to Angel. This is significant because Angel is the series where her character arc back to good properly begins, in the two-parter Five By Five/Sanctuary, where Angel himself is the character who’s instrumental in helping her. In fact, in the ending of Five By Five, she seeks death rather than turn good (“I’m bad! Kill me!”), but when Angel refuses to kill her, she breaks down, before starting on the long road back to some kind of redemption in Sanctuary. She then ends the video as a hero, standing by Buffy’s side.

It’s also interesting to note that the refrain of the song goes “If it gives you joy, you don’t have to explain it”. Including Dollhouse clips gives the song a creepy subtext in line with some of the thematic concerns of the show, considering that it’s about characters using others in order to act out their fantasies. And when characters such as Topher Brink try to ‘explain away’ this kind of behaviour, it simply masks the true nature of their actions.

Whether this subtext was intended or not, it’s still true that as a show, Dollhouse does give joy. Complex, cerebral joy, but still joy nonetheless. Moreover, the song’s refrain speaks not only to the Whedonverse, but also to fandom in general.

Disclaimer: There are many fanvids out there that I think are tremendously good (in many different ways), and the quality of fanvids is ultimately a subjective matter, so it’s arguably not possible to say definitely which is the “best” fanvid ever. Also, I’m a loyal Whedon fan, so I’m biased. In any case, the video should give you joy.

See also:

Harry Potter parody chart-bound?

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