Re: Fic: Noticing 1/1 (by Arsenic)

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Arsenic,

Fine fic and thanks for giving it to Jenny to post here. Interesting
way of dealing with what I think is my greatest objection to the Season
6 arc: not merely because "my best friend is evil" is such a rerun of
"my boyfriend is evil", not just because they twisted events and
characters all over the place to make Willow do things she never would,
not because the eps themselves were poorly conceived (and horribly
paced, and badly acted), not just because this was all to serve the
Grand Plan of Spuffy Forever (runs to bathroom to vomit at thought), but
I hate Season 6 because it means Buffy can never trust Willow again, and
that ruins the whole basis for the 'ship--B/W is supposed to be an
antidote to "redeeming the bad boy" and "I love you, but I don't know if
I can trust you" and all that crap we suffered through with Angel, and
now that's gone, now B/W is just B/A, the lesbian version. So how can a
fic writer fix it?

Your answer is interesting: that Buffy tends to worry over everything,
that she doesn't savor the good moments, and that she needs to stop
worrying (even when she has cause) and just take things on blind faith.
I don't know if I necessarily agree (I still tend to squick at dating
murderous psychopaths, which is what they've turned my Willow into
[Tara, in contrast, at least got off the show with her character
reasonably intact...]), but you make a good argument for it.

A fic that makes you think AND ends in B/W smooching. What more could I
ask? (Well, maybe the sex scene that's waiting at the top of the
stairs?)

Also enjoyed Dawn being so perceptive, the stripped-down,
heavily-conversational style, and the use fo all the details, regarding
food and scents and so on. Tied in nicely with the theme of noticing
the little, pleasant, things.

(Although I will admit to being embarassingly buried by all the
pop-culture references. You ask me what "Sanrio" is, and the best guess
I could give you is "uh, six of the letters from 'scenario'?" God, I
feel old...well, that's my problem...[hell, I barely got the "Harry
Potter" reference...my Rowling vocabulary goes "Harry, Hermoine,
Hogwarts, Muggle" and then I'm out.])

Thanks for sending the fic our way (and thanks to Jenny for passing it
on) and hope to see more from you. In fact, why not join the list
yourself? Then you wouldn't have to have Jenny post things for you, and
also reading the other B/W fics might entertain you. Or even inspire
you to write some more (yes, that's what's called an ulterior motive, I
admit).

In any event, thank you very much.

Dan

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