[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: FIC: Ascension's Shadow (1/?)
Alan,
Well, you're certainly wigging me out about version 2 as v. 1 seems a
little ominous to begin with, but I guess I'll just have to see what's
coming.
That's one of the the reasons I like the single divergence AUs; I don't
mind them getting all wonky, but it's neat to trace back to the
beginning and say to yourself, oh yes that's a logical consequence, I
should have seen that coming. Whereas here, I feel like you can just
pull anything out of your hat to suit the plot (hey, look, Darla's
actually alive and she and Joyce are dating!). Just a personal
preference/prejudice.
Not actually suggesting that wonky pairing. But let me throw a
"ridiculous couple" challenge to everyone out there: write a Giles/Tara
piece where two sort of similar people overcome minor obstacles like a
huge age gap and her being a lesbian, apparently always. He sputters,
she stutters, it's love. Oh, Dear Lord…
Back to topic, I missed the blood poisoning thing. So did Spike
actually suffer similarly when he drank Slayers, despite Angel's
euphoric thoughts?
I feel pretty sure about the Xander not in the basement until after High
School bit, but I am surprised to hear that the "Elizabeth" crowd thinks
they have canon on their side. Unfortunately, I won't be completely
able to deflate this until mid-October, as I've never seen the first and
early second season, and while I will spoil myself for certain eps or
details if they're necessary for a fic, I'm not going to check every
line in every script for "Elizabeth" until after I've had a chance to
see them on FX. I do know, that in "Anne", where Buffy presumably
reveals her middle name, there is no Elizabeth line. Hmm, maybe I'll go
back and see if she declares Buffy Anne Summers to be her full name.
Plenty of people are born with diminuitives as their legal name, from
Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle on down. There's no reason Buffy Anne
Summers has to be an Elizabeth any more than Eliza Patricia Dushku has
to be one.
Oh, and the Master Elizabeth Diminuitive List is missing Bess and
Bessie.
Waiting for next (geez, if you freaked Mad-Hamlet, do I really want to
know?),
Dan
Received: from smtpin-102-11.bryant.webtv.net (209.240.198.236) by
storefull-121.iap.bryant.webtv.net with WTV-SMTP; Sat, 4 Aug 2001
08:26:59 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by smtpin-102-11.bryant.webtv.net (WebTV_Postfix+sws) id 0D09424;
Sat, 4 Aug 2001 08:27:00 -0700 (PDT)
Delivered-To: danspector@xxxxxxxxx
Received: from n20.groups.yahoo.com (n20.groups.yahoo.com [216.115.96.70])
by smtpin-102-11.bryant.webtv.net (WebTV_Postfix+sws) with SMTP id
BBC17CA for <danspector@xxxxxxxxx>; Sat, 4 Aug 2001 08:26:59 -0700
(PDT)
X-eGroups-Return: sentto-359276-4903-996938818-danspector=webtv.net@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Received: from [10.1.4.52] by c9.egroups.com with NNFMP; 04 Aug 2001
15:26:59 -0000
X-Sender: masterofwords@xxxxxxxxxx
X-Apparently-To: buffyloveswillow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Received: (EGP: mail-7_2_0); 4 Aug 2001 15:26:58 -0000
Received: (qmail 49154 invoked from network); 4 Aug 2001 15:26:58 -0000
Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by m8.onelist.org with QMQP; 4 Aug 2001
15:26:58 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO sword.shield.com) (216.140.142.24) by mta1
with SMTP; 4 Aug 2001 15:26:57 -0000
Received: from illuminatus.shield.com (dial-2-62.shield.com
216.140.143.62) by sword.shield.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id
KAA10544 for <buffyloveswillow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Sat, 4 Aug 2001
10:26:57 -0500
Message-Id: <5.0.2.1.0.20010804100824.00a09df0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
X-Sender: mow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.0.2
To: buffyloveswillow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In-Reply-To: <4249-3B6B9EB9-65@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
References: <Alan Rogers <masterofwords@xxxxxxxxxx>
From: Alan Rogers <masterofwords@xxxxxxxxxx>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Mailing-List: list buffyloveswillow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; contact
buffyloveswillow-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Precedence: bulk
Date: Sat, 04 Aug 2001 10:27:18 -0500
Subject: Re: FIC: Ascension's Shadow (1/?)
Content-Type: text/html; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
<html>
Whoa....thanks, Dan. This is a lot more feedback than I'm used to
in one shot, so let me take a minute to answer each part.<br>
<br>
At 12:05 AM 8/4/01 -0700, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><tt>Alan,<br>
<br>
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.<br>
<br>
Didn't you just get through telling me offlist that you didn't have<br>
anything ready yet? Even if this is all you have written, that's a
heck<br>
of a start.<br>
<br>
And are you the same guy who said he couldn't write angst? Lord,
I'm<br>
having agita here, and I'm not even IN this universe. Apparently,
it'll<br>
be just Buffy and Willow against a ridiculous horde of villains
(and<br>
I'll count the new Watcher, for the moment). And this is supposed
to be<br>
the lighter version, if that "you don't want to know" signifies
a tonal<br>
difference between the two.</tt></blockquote><br>
Thank you for that...but when I mentioned offlist to you I had nothing
ready, this story was by no means appropriate for this list. The
story leaned a direction that I truly fear to put into words here,
considering the estimable Mad Hamlet's reaction.<br>
<br>
As for angst...I really didn't see any of this as angst! That comes
later.<br>
<br>
And for the most part, it's gonna be the Wicca and the Slayer doing
battle with most of the baddies...although Xander plays an important role
in this one...<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><tt>Some nicely written stuff here,
about Xander and his mom and his worry<br>
she'd been vamped (glad she died, though; I thought you were
getting<br>
uncomfortably Oedipal) and Buffy's visit to Faith and blaming the
whole<br>
thing on her failure to save Faith, and being all too familiar with
the<br>
hospital, and making the calls when she got the bad news. I like
to<br>
think Buffy made the toughest call first, and I was thinking that's<br>
Cordelia, but given how badly Willow is hurt by the news, maybe
that's<br>
the demon Buffy stares down first, her comfort zone with her friend<br>
being cancelled out by her pain at having to be the one to hurt
Willow<br>
by telling her the news.<br>
</tt></blockquote><br>
*lol* sorry...no Oepidus Rex here; just an emotional moment before
killing someone off. I needed her for that one-shot scene, and then
she became like the red-shirts on Star Trek; cannon fodder. (or is
that canon fodder?)<br>
<br>
I would really hate to have Xander poke out his eyes, too....<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><tt>Now for the quibbles and
nitpicks:<br>
<br>
Quibble #1: You've got at least three separate divergence
points<br>
working here: Xander's dad shooting up the joint, Wilkins not
dying,<br>
and the Council sending out the new guy and kidnapping G/We/C. I
was<br>
trained by years of Marvel Comics to pin my AUs on a single
divergence,<br>
and so I'm really psychologically resistant to this. Maybe it all
ties<br>
together somehow in the past?<br>
<br>
BTW, I'm not as resistant to things that make no claim to have any<br>
connection to canon, like snoe's "Stop, Don't Go" over at
Faithful.</tt></blockquote><br>
You're right, I'm working off of three separate divergence points.
Having never been a comic book fan, I don't suppose I've ever really been
trained on the way those work...<br>
<br>
But that's always been the fun of AU for me; the rules all change the
moment it becomes AU. And I'm pretty sure if I tracked it all back
and plotted it all out on a timeline I could tie it to one
divergence, but where's the fun in that?<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><tt>Quibble #2: Cordy's
wearing only jeans, sneakers, and a raincoat? No<br>
top, no undies? Kind of sexy, but uncomfortable for the trip to
the<br>
airport, much less Britain. I'd think I'd have spared 3 seconds to
grab<br>
a T-shirt.</tt></blockquote><br>
*blinks* I thought I had mentioned she had a t-shirt on
too....oops. Thanks for pointing that out. Although I have no
objections to a topless Codelia, I hadn't <i>consciously</i> meant to
write her that way...<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><tt>Quibble #3: If Angel
thought the mayor might still be alive, why did he<br>
let the good guys disperse? Not the sort of situation to play a
lone<br>
hand, as he's found out and should have known.</tt></blockquote><br>
Angel is suffering frome some severe blood poisoning; I just barely
hinted at what the blood of a Slayer was doing to him. You'll find
out later more about WHY he decided to play lone ranger, and it will make
more sense. But thanks for catching that!<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><tt>Nitpick #1: I don't think
Xander was actually in the basement then. In<br>
"The Freshman" he comes back from his cross-country tour that
turned<br>
into a dishwashing job at the infamous "Ladies Night" club in
Oxnard,<br>
and says he's living at home and everything's the same "except
NOW<br>
[emphasis mine] I live in the basement and pay rent." So it
sounds like<br>
the bachelor basement didn't exist until them.</tt></blockquote><br>
Hmm...that's what I had thought too, but a source of mine on another ML
told me <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><tt>Nitpick #2: Wilkins a
warlock? I never heard that, never saw him<br>
practice magic. I understood that his immortality was because of
his<br>
alliance with the demonic forces, of which his Ascension was to be
the<br>
climax.</tt></blockquote><br>
A warlock is a guy who's sold out to demonic forces and gotten powers in
return for it...and besides, the Ascension was successful, and Wilkins is
a Demon Lord trapped in a human's body.<br>
<br>
(cultural note: A warlock is not a male witch; a male witch is
still a witch)<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><tt>Nitpick #3, aka THE BIG
ONE: "Elizabeth Anne 'Buffy' Summers". No.<br>
No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, a thousand times NO! The
gravestone in<br>
"The Gift" says "Buffy Anne Summers". If it
were Elizabeth Anne it<br>
might say "Elizabeth Anne" or it might say "Buffy",
but it wouldn't say<br>
"Buffy Anne" because nobody is so informal as to use a
diminuitive and<br>
simultaneously so formal as to include the middle name. In
the South<br>
people might use two diminuitives (Billy-Bob) but Buffy isn't
Southern,<br>
and they're usually quite formal in the cemeteries anyway. <br>
When I wrote about this a month ago, someone (whose name, forgive
me,<br>
escapes me) wrote in to add that the Birth Certificate also says<br>
"Buffy", so that's that, although I don't know which episode he
was<br>
citing.<br>
<br>
I know people do this so they can get cutesy and give Buffy another<br>
name, like Lizzie or Beth, but stop it, and I quote BuffyFaith in
"Who<br>
Are You", "because it's wrong."<br>
<br>
You can call her Buffy, you can call her Anne, you can call her
some<br>
entirely different name she's adopted for whatever reason you dream
up,<br>
but you should not <br>
act as if her given name, or its diminuitive, is any of the
following:<br>
<br>
Elizabeth, Elisabeth, Ellie, Elsie, Elle, Ella, Elise, Elisa,
Elissa,<br>
Eliza, Elspeth, Lizabeth, Lisabeth, Lisbet, Lise, Lisa, Liz, Liza,<br>
Lissa, Lizzie, Libby, Beth, Bethie, Betty, Betsy, or Bitsy<br>
<br>
Okay, I know I'm being didactic here, but it's annoying (the
"Elizabeth"<br>
thing, not me, although maybe me, too). And besides, 9/10 of the
reason<br>
for this post was so I could write out that whole list. Did I miss
any?<br>
<br>
Well, maybe only 6/10 (I did like the fic, after
all).</tt></blockquote><br>
*lol* again, this is place where someone else corrected me, telling me
that during the series, Buffy's first name was referred to as Elizabeth,
and her middle name as Anne, and that Buffy was just a nickname from
somewhere in her past...*sighs* and your correction means that I have
some research to take care of...<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><tt>BTW, the HTML was nice with the
usage of the boldface and Italics.<br>
There was one paragraph that accidentally repeated itself,
though.</tt><br>
<tt></tt></blockquote><br>
Thanks for that! I should be good at the formatting and
presentation stuff; that's my job.<br>
<br>
aagh! which paragraph?<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><tt>Keep going, as if I could stop
you, and I look fearfully forward,<br>
</tt></blockquote><br>
be warned...there is actually quite a bit of this written (not yet
tweaked for the Willow/Buffy 'ship, though) and it goes some pretty
strange places.<br>
<br>
~alan, the mad dragon
<br>
<tt>
Community email addresses:<BR>
Post message: buffyloveswillow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<BR>
Subscribe: buffyloveswillow-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<BR>
Unsubscribe: buffyloveswillow-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<BR>
List owner: buffyloveswillow-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<BR>
<BR>
Shortcut URL to this page:<BR>
<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buffyloveswillow";>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buffyloveswillow</a><BR>
<BR>
Offical archive for the list:<BR>
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/slayerhacker/";>http://www.geocities.com/slayerhacker/</a></tt>
<br>
<br>
<tt>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the <a href="http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/";>Yahoo! Terms of Service</a>.</tt>
</br>
</html>
This is an archive of the eGroups/YahooGroups group "BuffyLovesWillow".
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" are trademarks and (c) 20th Century Fox Television and its related entities. This website, its operators and any content on this site relating to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" are not authorized by Fox.
No money is being made with this website.