Buffyverse Ficfeedbackathon I
Jul. 13th, 2004 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desoto_hia873First set of assignments for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bookishwench's Buffyverse Ficfeedbackathon
booster17's
Title: I Really Don’t Like Mondays
Link: http://www.tthfanfic.com/story.php?no=2160
Author: Booster
Rating: 15
Summary: An ordinary working day for Angel at Wolfram & Hart.
Setting: Takes place during Angel Season 5, directly after "Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco". There be SPOILERS for the first six episodes of Season 5.
Author's Note: This fic won Shadows & Dust SDFA7's Seer Award for Best POV. Woot!
This fic is a ‘mental journal’ of Angel’s thoughts during a work day (a Monday) at W&H. It reflects Angel’s mood of the early season quite well: Angel is grumpy and much of his day is taken up with unexciting administrative tasks and meetings that he doesn’t enjoy very much. The writing style is very like that of the show: well-paced with both funny and serious moments against a detailed backdrop of ‘in-jokes’ that only dedicated fans of both BtVS and AtS will understand.
There is a lot to enjoy in this well-written and humorous fic. The cast of Angel Season 5 make frequent appearances and all behave in-character. Spike ghosts around turning up at inopportune moments, and generally spends his day annoying Angel. Fred and Knox work in the lab creating new gadgets for Angel to use against demons. Harmony is by turn amusingly incompetent (holding Angel’s ‘calls’ – hee!), sulky, and apologetic. Eve and Angel are engaged in a constant battle to one-up and irritate each other. There’s also a very entertaining running gag involving the replacement mail guys after Numerco Cinco’s demise in the previous episode.
There are lots of references to events from both Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (e.g., little marshmallows, famous monsters owing money to a principal character, Gunn peeing in Angel’s office chair, etc.). I love stories that use continuity as well as the two series did, so I particularly enjoyed this.
There’s also a bit of foreshadowing regarding Fred’s fate later in the season (“Sorry Wes, but where Fred’s curiosity is concerned, you can’t save everyone.”) I wasn’t sure when this fic was written, so it may have been coincidence or it may have been intentional. Either way, it doesn’t matter – it’s still a moment that makes you pause and remember the more serious events the Fang Gang will face further down the road.
The fic ends the way the first episode of the season began: Angel slips out of the building, leaving all of the corporate trappings behind, to stalk and fight demons in the night. That he does this in memory of Doyle – the first soldier down – is both touching and fitting.
This is a great story and I highly recommend it. I have but two minor nitpicks:
(1) Angel refers to the traffic jam he has to fight through on his way to work in the morning, but I think he lives in the penthouse apartment of the W&H building. Of course, he could have been driving in from somewhere else, so, like I said – minor.
(2) A typo: “highly sort after posh restaurant” should be “highly sought after posh restaurant”.
Title: Divide and Conquer
Link: http://www.tthfanfic.com/story.php?no=2682
Author: Booster
Rating: 15
Summary: Amy’s got some thinking to do, and a hard decision to make.
Setting: One night during BtVS Season 7.
Some of the functions of fanfiction – both the writing and the reading of it – are to fill in plot holes, tie up loose ends, and create backstory that makes what we see onscreen more plausible. This story does all three of these things. Many people complained about Willow’s magic-addiction storyline in S6 – why, when she had been dabbling in magic for at least four years, did she suddenly become addicted to it? When “The Killer in Me” was aired in S7, a lot of fans questioned Amy’s motivation for casting the penance malediction on Willow. We hadn’t seen or heard from Amy since the middle of S6 – why did she suddenly reappear and with a grudge?
This story, written from Amy’s POV, answers these questions. It’s a well-written mix of in-the-present introspection and flashbacks to a conversation held earlier in the evening with Buffy. Buffy’s characterisation is spot-on as the hard-nosed “General Buffy” that she became in S7. Amy’s thoughts and reactions to Buffy’s words are interesting and quite believable. The story adheres to canon and strengthens it; it’s easy to imagine that it actually happened. As an added bonus, there’s a very nice twist at the end that pulls everything together. Overall, a very good story.
Minor nitpicks:
The word ‘night’ is used in a lot of neighbouring sentences, particularly near the beginning.
There are also two typos:
(1) “Assuming you’re more of a magic person that a user now” should be “Assuming you’re more of a magic person than a user now”;
(2) “At times she thought her memories of the place were another side effort” should be “At times she thought her memories of the place were another side effect”.
Title: Second Soldier Down
Author: Booster
Link: http://www.tthfanfic.com/story.php?no=3073
Rating: PG
Summary: Angel isn’t going to brood – she wouldn’t like that.
Setting: Immediately after You’re Welcome.
Author’s notes: Marlene On The Wall is, of course, by Suzanne Vega. There are large spoilers here for the latest Angel episode "You're Welcome" (Season 5 episode 12), so be warned.
This is a nice little ficlet coda to the Angel S5 episode “You’re Welcome”. It’s written from Angel’s POV and set just after he receives the phone call telling him of Cordy’s death. We get a look at Angel’s reaction to the sad news, some of his memories of Cordelia, and the renewal of purpose that she inspired in him. In the same way that “You’re Welcome” was a tribute to the character of Cordelia, so this ficlet is a tribute to that episode. Anyone who mourned Cordelia’s passing will get additional closure from this story.
I particularly liked Angel’s idea of holding a wake for Cordelia. Very Irish of him. :-)
bookishwench's Buffyverse Ficfeedbackathonbooster17's Title: I Really Don’t Like Mondays
Link: http://www.tthfanfic.com/story.php?no=2160
Author: Booster
Rating: 15
Summary: An ordinary working day for Angel at Wolfram & Hart.
Setting: Takes place during Angel Season 5, directly after "Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco". There be SPOILERS for the first six episodes of Season 5.
Author's Note: This fic won Shadows & Dust SDFA7's Seer Award for Best POV. Woot!
This fic is a ‘mental journal’ of Angel’s thoughts during a work day (a Monday) at W&H. It reflects Angel’s mood of the early season quite well: Angel is grumpy and much of his day is taken up with unexciting administrative tasks and meetings that he doesn’t enjoy very much. The writing style is very like that of the show: well-paced with both funny and serious moments against a detailed backdrop of ‘in-jokes’ that only dedicated fans of both BtVS and AtS will understand.
There is a lot to enjoy in this well-written and humorous fic. The cast of Angel Season 5 make frequent appearances and all behave in-character. Spike ghosts around turning up at inopportune moments, and generally spends his day annoying Angel. Fred and Knox work in the lab creating new gadgets for Angel to use against demons. Harmony is by turn amusingly incompetent (holding Angel’s ‘calls’ – hee!), sulky, and apologetic. Eve and Angel are engaged in a constant battle to one-up and irritate each other. There’s also a very entertaining running gag involving the replacement mail guys after Numerco Cinco’s demise in the previous episode.
There are lots of references to events from both Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (e.g., little marshmallows, famous monsters owing money to a principal character, Gunn peeing in Angel’s office chair, etc.). I love stories that use continuity as well as the two series did, so I particularly enjoyed this.
There’s also a bit of foreshadowing regarding Fred’s fate later in the season (“Sorry Wes, but where Fred’s curiosity is concerned, you can’t save everyone.”) I wasn’t sure when this fic was written, so it may have been coincidence or it may have been intentional. Either way, it doesn’t matter – it’s still a moment that makes you pause and remember the more serious events the Fang Gang will face further down the road.
The fic ends the way the first episode of the season began: Angel slips out of the building, leaving all of the corporate trappings behind, to stalk and fight demons in the night. That he does this in memory of Doyle – the first soldier down – is both touching and fitting.
This is a great story and I highly recommend it. I have but two minor nitpicks:
(1) Angel refers to the traffic jam he has to fight through on his way to work in the morning, but I think he lives in the penthouse apartment of the W&H building. Of course, he could have been driving in from somewhere else, so, like I said – minor.
(2) A typo: “highly sort after posh restaurant” should be “highly sought after posh restaurant”.
Title: Divide and Conquer
Link: http://www.tthfanfic.com/story.php?no=2682
Author: Booster
Rating: 15
Summary: Amy’s got some thinking to do, and a hard decision to make.
Setting: One night during BtVS Season 7.
Some of the functions of fanfiction – both the writing and the reading of it – are to fill in plot holes, tie up loose ends, and create backstory that makes what we see onscreen more plausible. This story does all three of these things. Many people complained about Willow’s magic-addiction storyline in S6 – why, when she had been dabbling in magic for at least four years, did she suddenly become addicted to it? When “The Killer in Me” was aired in S7, a lot of fans questioned Amy’s motivation for casting the penance malediction on Willow. We hadn’t seen or heard from Amy since the middle of S6 – why did she suddenly reappear and with a grudge?
This story, written from Amy’s POV, answers these questions. It’s a well-written mix of in-the-present introspection and flashbacks to a conversation held earlier in the evening with Buffy. Buffy’s characterisation is spot-on as the hard-nosed “General Buffy” that she became in S7. Amy’s thoughts and reactions to Buffy’s words are interesting and quite believable. The story adheres to canon and strengthens it; it’s easy to imagine that it actually happened. As an added bonus, there’s a very nice twist at the end that pulls everything together. Overall, a very good story.
Minor nitpicks:
The word ‘night’ is used in a lot of neighbouring sentences, particularly near the beginning.
There are also two typos:
(1) “Assuming you’re more of a magic person that a user now” should be “Assuming you’re more of a magic person than a user now”;
(2) “At times she thought her memories of the place were another side effort” should be “At times she thought her memories of the place were another side effect”.
Title: Second Soldier Down
Author: Booster
Link: http://www.tthfanfic.com/story.php?no=3073
Rating: PG
Summary: Angel isn’t going to brood – she wouldn’t like that.
Setting: Immediately after You’re Welcome.
Author’s notes: Marlene On The Wall is, of course, by Suzanne Vega. There are large spoilers here for the latest Angel episode "You're Welcome" (Season 5 episode 12), so be warned.
This is a nice little ficlet coda to the Angel S5 episode “You’re Welcome”. It’s written from Angel’s POV and set just after he receives the phone call telling him of Cordy’s death. We get a look at Angel’s reaction to the sad news, some of his memories of Cordelia, and the renewal of purpose that she inspired in him. In the same way that “You’re Welcome” was a tribute to the character of Cordelia, so this ficlet is a tribute to that episode. Anyone who mourned Cordelia’s passing will get additional closure from this story.
I particularly liked Angel’s idea of holding a wake for Cordelia. Very Irish of him. :-)