BTVS fic thoughts

[timepiececlock]

I was thinking about post-Chosen fanfics, and it occurred to me, "You know, it's not really fair that everyone assumes Spike is going to be ressurrected, and not Anya. I mean, they were both evil and they both chose to be good, and they both died saving others and fighting the good fight. Why should Spike automatically get picked? Because Buffy loves him and so do we? Well, Anya has someone out there who loved her, too. She should get a chance at new life."

So, here's a wandering thought:

Anya is offered by the Powers That Be Powerful a chance to be brought back from the dead. At first, she is glad for it-- Anya's loves gifts and quite liked living on planet Earth, in whatever form. However, she starts to question it... she wonders why her, and not Spike--- the man the Power's Chosen, Buffy, loves? She feels that maybe Spike was more important than her, that maybe he was a better soulled person because she chose to be demon twice, and he didn't have anyone die to pay for his soul. Also, she liked Spike, and she doesn't think it's fair practice to pick just one person out of many good people who died worthy deaths. So she argues with them.

They tell her, "Fine, if he wants to be back, we'll bring him back too. But he'll be your responsibility." Anya says, "What the fuck do you mean, my responsibility?" And they say that she's got to reintroduce him to the human world, and got to help him find a purpose with the new life, because he's an exception to the rules now so he's got to pay for his ressurection with something important, and he'll need help surviving. What that payment is is unknown... memories, love, soul, sanity? They'll have to find out as it happens; it's a gamble.

So they are both brought back to life. Only Spike's in a bad way, and Anya is stuck not only helping him, but also teaching him how to deal with being human again (something she has experience with.) Thus starts a buddy story, as the two try to sort out their new shot at life, find a purpose of direction, and for the sake of "true love nonsense" track down Buffy Summers and Xander Harris...as much because Anya wants to the dump the responsibility of Human!Spike onto Buffy's shoulders and make it her problem and get on with the Anya+Xander!life as anything else.

What do you think? A good idea? A bad idea?

Comments

[octopedingenue]

I recognize that this is such a bare-bones sketch that my issues with it may very well be addressed and my whining may very well be moot. Still: I don't believe Anya is characterized by the kind of active (and I look at a certain episode-title, and I roll my eyes at myself) selflessness and un-greediness that your summary seems to describe--that in being given a wonderful and welcome reprieve, her almost immediate thought is to give it to someone else. I believe that, metaphorically speaking, Anya could under certain circumstances be driven to throw herself in front of a truck to save Spike; I do not believe she would ignore a "safe to walk" sign and a crossing guard motioning her across her own street just to wait for a truck to come along and actively throw herself in front of for Spike's sake. Of course, I also think that Anya honestly thinking she is less important than Spike for the reasons you describe smacks of Anya as Supporting Character as Greek Chorus as Authorial Self-Insertion Voice, a phenomenon in which three-dimensional characters in their own rights are reduced to a sort of Greek Chorus sitting around gushing to one another about how cool and wonderful and amazing another character is--especially when this character is one who was never bestest best friends with the Greek Chorus, but is instead one whom the Chorus characters considered at best an ally, at times a buddy, and at worst a mortal enemy,. Taking into consideration the practicality bordering on contempt with which Anya on occasion treated Heroic Slayer Buffy and even Xander, the love of her life, I would welcome Anya becoming Spike's friend, but I could never buy her as his fangirl.

I have watched far too many hours of "Pride and Prejudice" tonight, because Strange Convoluted Formal Speech has crept into my brain and WILL NOT DEPART.

So to answer your question: YES, I would definitely be interested in this story, because I'd be fascinated by your exploration of the issues I have such reservations about. Everything can be explained within a context of a story. My favorite kinds of stories are ones that take situations I do not think will work logically AT ALL and making me eat my words, hat, and pride. :)

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Of course, I also think that Anya honestly thinking she is less important than Spike for the reasons you describe smacks of Anya as Supporting Character as Greek Chorus as Authorial Self-Insertion Voice, a phenomenon in which three-dimensional characters in their own rights are reduced to a sort of Greek Chorus sitting around gushing to one another about how cool and wonderful and amazing another character is--especially when this character is one who was never bestest best friends with the Greek Chorus, but is instead one whom the Chorus characters considered at best an ally, at times a buddy, and at worst a mortal enemy,. Taking into consideration the practicality bordering on contempt with which Anya on occasion treated Heroic Slayer Buffy and even Xander, the love of her life, I would welcome Anya becoming Spike's friend, but I could never buy her as his fangirl.

Anya was never Spike's mortal enemy; in fact most of the time she had no relationship to him at all-- something I think would serve this idea pretty well. I mean, Anya never cared about Spike as a person much at all, so if she did speak up I was thinking of it being more of a complaint about the system using him as an example, and them taking her literally.

I know exactly what you're talking about though, and his fangirl was never something I would try to make Anya into. I swear, that was not in my head at ALL. I was thinking more about Anya's insecurities than about Spike's cool level... in fact, as I was thinking further about this in the tub just now (observe my shiny smooth shaved legs), I was thinking of ways in which Anya would view Spike as being a burden in this situation-- something she didn't expect to get saddled with when she dared to ask why she, in particular, was picked, instead of for example others in her life. I imagine that if ressurected she'd immediately want to go after her own goals-- be it Xander or something more self-oriented, and would probably regrett having even brought up Spike as a topic and resent having to mind him. But you're right, I certainly would have to be careful about authorial voice interefering with Anya characterization; it's something I have seen in fic before as well. I don't know exactly what a "greek chorus" is though.

You're right about Anya not throwing herself out on a line for Spike when he's already "finished" so to speak (I don't think she'd do that for anyone except Xander-- whom she looks down upon but has sacrificed ehrself for before.) However, I think I give her a little more than you are... she did die saving Andrew, after all, so I think she's got the requisite nobility inside her to care for someone else. I'll just have to work to make it come out properly. I wouldn't look at it as Anya/Spike friendship in the beginning in which she's trying to help him by getting him ressurected to... it may not have come out in my rough sketch but in my head it was more matter-of-fact and callous than and act of friendship, but rather a reflection of her own issues, namely her insecurity. Also, Beneath You always made me wonder if some part of her measured her own demonness in some degree against the only other demon in a similar situation in her life-- Spike. Her interest in how and why he got a soul, for example, intrigued me a lot, and she certainly doubted herself in early season 7. Because her decision in Selfless cost Anya her oldest friend, I always wondered if she thought about that much when she considered her human status.

I'm pleased by your interest, and I appreciate the questioning! Now is the best time to point out flaws in consistency and logic, because it's only just starting in my brain.