Re: FIC: Ascension's Shadow (2/?)

[Alan Rogers <masterofwords@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:18 PM 8/5/01 -0700, you wrote:
> Alan,
>
> Wow, you gave me serious cred in that preamble,  I'm just glad you
> liked
> it and pleased if I helped in any way.  

Hey, I always enjoy some good feedback, especially if it finds stuff I
missed!



> Let me deal with the story
> first.  The opening scene with NakedWoman who
> does magic was strange and compelling.  My guess is that this is
> a
> resurrected Jenny, which is good because the girls need all the 
> help
> they can get against Wilkins, Angelus, Spike, Dru, Oz and assorted
> vampires.  Not to mention the new Watcher and his cronies, who
> I
> wouldn't trust further than I could throw the "Vampyr"
> book.  And the
> "how" of the resurrection should prove
> interesting.

The HOW is a purely Kalderash motive...and if you listened to
Jenny's 'uncle' in Season 2, you get a really good insight into thier
people.



> Nice plot recap from Dru of all
> people.  I can almost see Juliet Landau
> doing the "Previously&" bit.  Well, maybe
> not.

Drusilla has always been one of my favorites, and is going to play a
bigger role as Wilkins plumbs the depth of her powers...



> The G/C/We political intrigue
> plot should prove interesting, and also
> seems to indicate that we've got a looong series looming.  Well, now
> we
> know why you put Cordelia there.

I've always had a feeling her character was under-developed in either
series, and I've always wanted to play around with her character
some.  I don't promise any fluffy lovey-dovey or even romance when
it comes to her, but I promise some good lines and even better
comebacks.


> The Fred Durst song (so he does
> solo work, besides Limp Bizkit?) was
> good, but the paragraph that followed seemed, I don't know, is
> "tendentious" the word I'm looking for?  Kind of recappy,
> anyway.
> We're all fans, and this is Chapter 4;  I don't know that you have
> to
> explain the Scooby Gang concept here.  Still, if I'm only ragging on
> one
> paragraph in the fic, you know you're doing something
> right.

That paragraph was put in there for a reason; there are a lot of
different views on the Scooby Gang put into fanfic, and I felt I needed
to establish the way Buffy felt about them early on in the fic, because
it plays a fairly important role later on.


> The Ira Rosenberg P.O.V. was
> nice.  Good pickup on Spike being a common
> denominator in Willow's ("Becoming, Part I") and Cordy's
> ("Lovers Walk")
> injuries, and the Big Bad would certainly seem to most parents as a
> "punk".  Well, except marshmallows-in-the-cocoa Joyce, I
> guess.  And the
> mayor's first stratagem is smart:  I was expecting him to use
> bone-controlled Oz against Willow, but it's simpler for him to just
> arrange a disappearance and have her hauled down to the police
> station,
> where I'm sure something bad will happen.  I assume it won't work,
> but
> clever strategy, anyway.

*grins* you're very close, but not quite there.  What I feel some
people fail to remember is that Wilkins is over a century old and was
smart enough to avoid lots of trouble before Buffy came around.



> Now to the nitpicking, and
> let's start with a brand new one:  while
> Giles SHOULD drink gin, when he's actually sotting around in Season
> 4,
> it seems scotch is his preferred poison.  Maybe the Watchers'
> Council
> plane has a crappy bar?

Later you discover that gin is the only drink offered most times because
of some obscure tradition.  I do know that Giles drinks scotch, and
after the flight, he most often does.  The gin thing is a subtle
reference to a private joke between myself and a good friend who is
reading this.



> On the Xander bit, I admit
> "except now I live in the basement and pay
> rent" could be read as "whereas before I used to live there
> rent-free",
> except that in that case, you should stress the "and" and I
> remember
> Nick Brendon stressing the "now".  Are you calling Nick a
> bad actor?
> Hey, let's you and him fight!

I think I'd have a good chance against him; fourteen years of training
and a third-degree black belt give an edge most guys don't have...but
I've decided that since this is AU anyway, why not just let this one
slide?



> On the Elizabeth question, I
> google-searched both the Buffy Shooting
> Scripts Site (
> www.mustreadtv.com/buffyscripts/
> ) and Psyche:
> Transcripts and Sounds (www.psyche.kn-bremen.de) and the only use of the
> name Elizabeth in an episode comes when Angel is reading a book of
> Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poems in "Helpless".  So neither Buffy nor
> anyone else is ever called "Elizabeth" on-air.   But the words
> "certificate" or "birth certificate" aren't there either, so the fellow
> who claimed that as backup must have been mistaken.  And the only
> reference to "Buffy Anne Summers" is on the gravestone, which I still
> think is enough.
>
> So I can't absolutely say it's Buffy Anne Summers, but I have to believe
> it, because of the gravestone, and because, if it were Elizabeth,
> shouldn't it have come up even once, in all the hundreds of times
> Buffy's been referred to (perhaps by Principal Flutie, when he meets her
> and is looking at her Hemery High records?  Or the cops when they put
> out the A.P.B. on her?).  I've got to go with "Buffy" on this.  
>
> (Did you know, for example, that Buck Henry's first name is "Buck"?
> Although the full name is Buck Henry Zuckerman;  like Jon Stewart
> Liebowitz, he ditched the too-Jewish last name.)

After some extensive research, reading and late-night reviews of old tapes,I can't find that reference anywhere, so I'm going to change it to Buffy Anne Summers until evidence is presented to the contrary.  And I no longer consider that person a valid source; he's been wrong too many times.



> And thanks for pointing out that I'd missed a fourth canon divergence:
> Buffy's not getting accepted into UCS (not UCLA, as you keep writing).
> So,  you've a plot secret that explains all of these, even Buffy's not
> being accepted?  Cool.  (I guess I have to give nitpick #5 hereI
> think students have to confirm their admissions before Grad Day rolls
> around.   Maybe Buffy thinks she's going to Northwestern, after all?)

To my knowledge, the UC System does not require pre-grad confirmation; theywait until after Graduation Day because up until the moment the ceremony is declared over, any or all of the graduating seniors are eligible to have their diplomas revoked.


> Keep it up,


Thanks....I plan on it!

~alan, the mad dragon


> Dan
>
>
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