Re: FF Children of the Earth (4/10)

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

"In every generation, there is a Chosen One. One Girl in all the world
born with the hands to stroke perfect hair, the heart to share true
love, the tongue to send a certain redhead into paroxysms of ecstasy.
She alone will stand against the forces of Heterosexuality, for she
is...the Willowlayer!"

Okay, maybe not. But I bet you can tell what my favorite line in that
fic was, huh? Snerk.

Lots of good stuff here. Faith in England, and Quentin Travers going,
"oh, that's just a robot". Naturally. They might not have been able to
fool the vamps, but you can always fool Quentin.

Early morning smooches and shower confusion, and the return of
guilt-cooking. Willow riding the bus to LA, thinking of it as one last
thing she had in common with Buffy. (I just wish you'd had her spot the
"Now Leaving Sunnydale...Come Back Soon!" sign, though)

Cordelia going "Once a demon, always a demon!" So sadly ironic. (OT:
I think they made her a very subtle kind of demon--she worked her evil
ways through lame "sensitive" speeches and weak plot devices, neatly
destroying Cordelia's character and a good deal of the show's appeal.
Or maybe I'm just over-reacting to having seen "That Vision-Thing" and
the Real Cordelia earlier tonight.) And the awkward but honest
conversation in the car; I love Cordy/Willow friendship.  

Willow shouldn't have been so shocked at the Sorceress's telepathy,
though. She'd been doing it herself, after all. And I'm not fond of
the "things are grey; demons can be nice" school of philosophy--IMO,
the demon has to be purely evil to make the battles Angel (and Oz, and
Doyle) fight against it compelling. If Angelus can be reasoned with,
there's no reason to be in a tizzy about Angel's soul. Likewise,
Spike's chip only works as a plot device if it forces him to constantly
go against his nature; if he's just a good ol' bloke with fangs anyway,
what's the big deal?

"A demon is a creature of evil, pure and very simple; a person driven
to kill is, is, uh--it's more complex."--Giles, "The Puppet Show"

Which brings us to Warren, whose human evil would have been more
complex, more compelling, if the show hadn't been overrun with friendly
demons (die, Clem! Die!). I like that we've got a Big Plot brewing,
with Warren and Spike both pawns of something bigger. Very interesting.

But the best part of all of this was the "soulmate" revelation. Not
only did you make this often-used concept seem new and exciting and
important by tying it into the spell, not only
did you thereby make "Bargaining" more powerful

--but best of all, you made something important actually happen in the
"non-crossover, non-event". Seriously cool.

Looking forward to Chapter 5.

Dan

(Oh, and glad to see that Angel bought completely into Willow's
assumption about Buffy being in Hell. Good to know that was a perfectly
logical theory, that she wasn't just being evil and stupid and selfish,
no matter what Joss & co. want us to think. :p to them.)

(Yep, still bitter.)