Re: FIC: The Slayer And The Witch - Chapters 7-9/?

["Stefan Akerblom" <nagarek62@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

--- In buffyloveswillow@y..., danspector@w... wrote:

Hi Dan.

Glad to see you're getting there! :o)

> Strong work, particularly in part 9 (7 was mostly intorducing the Angel
> problem and 8 Buffy making her announcement). Nice work showing that
> Angel's problem isn't with his body, it's with his soul. The
> temptations of Shanshu are what got him into all that trouble in Angel
> S2, after all.

Well apart from not having seen Angel S2, yes, his problems are with
what's
kept him here on earth, and he's come to terms with that as his salvation as
much as his curse. Only through unremitting penitence can he ultimately gain
true release, without it he still has too much to pay.

> Also nice to see Willow tear into Tara for abandoning her. The
> on-screen Tara we see is meant to grab our sympathies, but I've got
> enough Tara-basher in me to note that "32 days without magic" line in
> "Dead Things" and realize it means that during the worst month of
> Willow's life, Tara didn't see her at all, not even once. And that
> pathetic "if I did call, she wouldn't hang up on me" line in "As You
> Were" seems to bespeak that Tara DID hang up on Willow in the past. So
> let's hear it for emotional abandonment, the one thing that anyone who's
> ever met Willow would know would hurt her the most.

I had a lot of problems with Tara walking out on Willow right smack dab
when she's the most vulnerable, and in need of so much understanding,
partially
with the addiction which is becoming more and more apparent, and what she
did
to Buffy, returning her from Heaven, the guilt she must be feeling etc ...
If
you have someone suffering from an addiction or other problem like that, you
don't walk out on them, you support them ... and this was my addressing of
that
shortcoming in the narrative.

> Having said that, of course Tara has issues of her own with the break
> up, and Willow is far from innocent (you even have her properly admit
> she was too hard on Tara). But I must just confess to a certain joy of
> seeing Willow give a little back, instead of being the groveling puppy,
> begging for a bone, she's been on-screen.

Sure, Willow's a little bitter at Tara walking out on her, as anyone
would
rightfully be under the same circumstances. Willow being Willow though, has
an
almost infinite capacity for compassion and love, she wouldn't stay bitter
for
too long, especially now that she has Buffy.

> The Angel/Spike confrontation was strong emotionally, but Spike acts
> like Angel knows about the B/S affair, and Buffy doesn't seem to have
> told anyone about that. (Or did it not happen in this fic? I'm trying
> to recall a reference.) Of course, not to do an impression of a B/Aer,
> but even I figure that if Angel ever does find out about B/S, Spike's
> going to get hit with a lot more than just two punches…

And that tells you ... two punches. If someone else had written it, it
would tell me Angel doesn't know about Spike and Buffy, just that he's been
mooning around and making a nuisance of himself. Spike'd be grave-dust if
Angel
knew what REALLY happened.

> OTOH, nice little touch with Spike not knowing about Doyle's death.
> Indeed, why would he?

Thank you. :o)

> And even more enjoyable was seeing Spike with those mystic objects at
> the end. Not over a general "evil Spike" issue or anything, but because
> it just seems a very realistic touch—Spike's not used to being this
> held in check, and having a couple of magickal aces up his sleeve seems
> like a very in-character response to his physical limitations.

He's got plans ... and you know about the best laid plans of mice and
...
undead men ...

> So, onwards and who knows, one day I may even get current on this thing

Thanks for the FB, very incisive stuff as usual from you, and I would
expect nothing less.

Stef.


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