Re: FIC : "Of Stakes & Spells" 20/?

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Vixen,

Quite good continuation of the story, with an excellent depiction of
Buffy's tangled feelings for Faith.  So she's determined to absolve
Faith because she blames herself?  In character and it fits with Buffy's
insistence on giving Faith another chance in "This Year's Girl".  I also
very much liked Willow going to Buffy and supporting her, but not
letting her wallow.  A wonderful friendship moment that only deepens the
B/W romance.

That said, I can't quite agree with your thesis here (that Buffy never
intended to feed Faith to Angel, and only wanted her out of the way for
when she fought the Mayor).  This contradicts much of the canon in
"Graduation Day, Part 1", including Buffy explicitly telling Faith that
was what she intended to do.  (Faith:  "There's a cure?  Damn!  What is
it?"  Buffy:  "Your blood.  As justice goes, it's not unpoetic.")  Even
if Buffy was merely putting on the bravado to scare Faith, that wouldn't
explain the fact that both Xander and Willow believed that Buffy was
going to kill Faith and tried to talk her out of it.

(I can't mention this point without noting how much it contradicts the
Season Sux depiction of amoral, vengeful, selfish Willow.  Faith came
within 10 seconds of chopping Willow into strips in "Choices" [imagine
if the Mayor had stayed on the phone with Giles even a littlle
longer...], and yet Willow doesn't want Buffy to kill Faith, because
Willow **knows it's wrong** and cares more about what it would do to
Buffy than getting her revenge on Faith.  A far cry from what the
"Willow's always been evil!  She tried to curse Oz!" [No, she didn't.
Called it off.   Didn't have it in her, as Veruca points out, *twice*,
just so the slower members of the  audience get it.] bashers in the
fandom were trying to sell all last year.

Sorry for the rant.  Just hated all that "Joss cleverly foreshadowed
Willow being evil for years and years, and then Marti 'Wrecked' it with
her magic-addiction excuse" crying that the anti-Willow faction did [and
still does].  *Really* hated it.)

Also, the concept that Buffy is only acting to remove Faith from the
fight doesn't fit with the fact that she's willing to risk her own
incapacitation (and possible death) to save Angel.   As the Mayor tells
Faith (confirming the warning that Wesley had given Buffy earlier), the
whole point of the slow-acting attack on Angel is to distract Buffy.
(That's why Faith intentionally misses the heart, since dusting Angel
would devastate Buffy, but merely lead her to refocus her efforts.)  The
fact that the "Killer of the Dead" poison ended up sending Buffy after
Faith was an unforseen side effect (it took much research for Oz to
discover that Slayer Blood was the cure, and given the Mayor's murderous
anger towards Angel when Faith winds up comatose, I think we can
discount the possibilty that it was all an elaborate plan to kill Faith
on his part).

But, OTOH (as people may recall), I've never been able to go as far as
Mad Hamlet and others and say that Buffy went to Faith's with murder in
her heart and therefore is a total hypocrite when she inveighs against
killing later on in the series.  I think Buffy was intellectually
prepared to use any and all measures, up to and including killing Faith,
but was reluctant to
do so in practice.   I think she originally intended to knock Faith out
and drag her to Angel for him to feed on, and would never have been able
to let him totally drain her (even if she, when talking to Willow or
Xander or Faith, thinks that she might).  Yes, she brought the knife,
but only as backup, which is why it takes her so long to bring it into
the fight. (You'll remember, the first time she gets the opportunity to
get her hands on Faith, she doesn't use the knife to kill her, but the
handcuffs to restrain her.)

If all there had been to Buffy's motives was "you tried to gut me,
Blondie!", Buffy would have started with the knife from the beginning.
As it was, she could have easily lost the knife in the fight before she
even got a chance to use it.  And while it can be argued that Buffy
didn't stab Faith low out of a reluctance to kill (as you claim) but
merely because that's where the opening happened to be, it's a fact that
Buffy then immediately lets go of the knife, horrified by what she's
done, rather than holding on and driving it upward to finish Faith off
(as Faith herself has nightmares of Buffy doing in "This Year's Girl").

Buffy dealt Faith a non-lethal (especially to a Slayer) blow (IMO quite
reluctantly), passed up the opportunity to finish Faith off and then
watched as Faith did her suicidal lunge and landed in a coma.  So I
agree that she shouldn't blame herself, but I can't quite believe that
she never meant for Faith to be Angel-food.  (And I certainly took a lot
of words to say it, didn't I?  Eesh!)

Anyway, aside from that, loved the chapter.  And again, I thought you
did a real nice job of finding the characters' voices.  (Loved Buffy's
anger at the beeping of the heart monitor.)

More, please.

Dan

PSminor nitpick:  hospital floors are most definitely not made out of
stone.  You might find the odd concrete floor in a sub-basement
somewhere, but for the most part it's linoleum.

Okay, now I'm remembering Xander's line from "Innocence" about how
looking at linoleum turns him on and I'm having really squicky thoughts
about Xander visiting Coma!Faith.  (Not to mention him and Angelus
getting literally in each other's faces in the hospital in "Killed By
Death".)  Gotta go wash out my brain... ;)


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Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     'Choices'

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