Re: FIC: Desperate Measures 3/3

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Annoying Moderator-type stuff first (and, please, nobody take this
personally):

Kirayoshi, if you're going to include Season 7 SPOILERS in your
feedback, please label that in the header and include 20 lines of
Spoiler Space.

mudrat, we had a barrage of complaints last month about people replying
to fics but including the original post as well, which takes up a lot of
space in inboxes. (It was other people's posts who caused this problem;
I'm just reminding you [and the list in general] so as to prevent a
recurrance). If you're responding from the board, please hit Ctrl+A to
select all the text in the text box (ie, the original post) and then
delete it before typing your reply. Thanks.

And thanks to both of you for your feedback; I hate pointing out list
rules in re feedback, because it is so vital that people keep responding
to the authors, but I figured I'd better mention these.

***************************************************

Okay, now for actual praise-giving.

Mike,

Bang-up ending. The Hellmouth has been called "the explanation that
keeps on giving", and Joss himself acknowledged that on his commentary
for "The Harvest", saying that "we're on a Hellmouth" is the all-purpose
cover for dodgy plot points, just like "Willow found it on the computer"
is their way of giving the gang access to facts (coroner's reports,
etc.) that they really shouldn't have.

Why do I mention these two delightful catchalls? Because, in fic,
there's a third one:

"It's all Quentin Travers's fault."

Mind you, I'm by no means accusing you of sinking into cliche; I think
it was very clever to come up with an all-encompassing explanation for
"how the Hell can Buffy spend six years with Willow and just not admit
the truth??" and Quentin is perfectly credible (hence his continued
utility for these sort of things). And I liked how you made it so that
it was not simply a device to thwart B/W (which might have begged belief
that QT would go so far for just that), but a longstanding, detailed
program of Slayer Indoctrination, which probably covered hundreds of
things. (Gee, I wonder if Buffy is programmed to floss after meals?)

It also explains why Kendra crushes immediately on Xander, despite the
fact that she had been kept secluded from boys...

Oh, and I guess if a Slayer broke through the hypnosis enough to
actually start hitting on another woman, she'd go insane and violent
from the voices in her head? Yep, sounds like you've got the groundwork
for a lovely Faith-centric sequel, should you chose to write it....

Oh, and good thing Dawn's faster than Xander, since neither of them
bothered to think what would logically follow from 1) Buffy admitting
that she was in love with Willow, and then 2) B/W being transported to
Buffy's bedroom. Then again, maybe Xander did think of it and that's
why he was running...

Once again, congrats and thanks,

Dan