I've only read the first paragraph, but I already know I'm going to agree with most if not all of this. I wasn't into slash or Buffy and then I stumbled across a a video on youtube (while looking for something else entirely) that had about five seconds of a Spike/Xander shot just before I hit the back button, got all curious, and fell for both so hard I couldn't see straight. Now I'm an avid BtVS fan and Spander is my OTP. Weird how it's the little things draw you in. Off to actually read the manifesto now.