Questions Post #10

[lettered]

-Why did they fuck with Spike and Angel's ages so much? Were they really just not paying attention to what had come before, or were there reasons all the dates got switched around?
-Ok, is it completely OFF to think Spike might like musicals? There's that "76 trombone" line, and he's seen Les Mis in order to tell Angel it's not all that. Any other proof?
-Can Angel ice skate? Don't you think when he asked Buffy to ice skate in What's My Line Part 1 he meant to skate himself? Can David Boreanaz ice skate? How come there's not more cheesy ice!fic? I...I wrote a fic in which Angel says he's going to teach Connor to skate. It was an accident!

-How do you you prefer chapters to be doled out in long fics? Do you want 'em short, so you can zip through 'em? Do you want them just as long as it takes, to cover a scene or get to the point, whether it's 2 pages or 20? Or do you like them long?
-How about the posting of long fics? I've learned from experience a bunch of people stay away from WIPs, but what if *ahem* someone had a really long *finished* fic--would you still want them to post a chapter at a time? How have other people handled this in the past?
-I know writers are whores and always like in depth fb. But as an fb-er do you ever feel slightly uncomfortable leaving extremely long fb? What if the writer replies to your fb, and you want to reply back, does it feel weird having a long conversation in the fb thread of the story? What if the conversation has veered into meta/squee/something not fb, do you ever feel like the writer might not want to talk about it there because it's in the fb thread?

-Picture Anya in your head really quick. Did you think of her as bright blonde/dirty blonde/honey-light-brunette/dark brunette? Short or midlength hair? Curly or straight?
-Is there any change in Anya's soul/conscience/sense of morality/etc when she turns from a demon to a human, and vice versa?
-Has anyone ever done any meta/had an explanation for why Anya liked Wishverse? In "The Wish", she says it's both "wonderful" and "exciting". Of course there's that difficulty establishing her soul/conscience etc as a demon, and also they weren't very careful with Anya as a character there because they didn't know/weren't sure she'd play such a big role later. But later she does talk about enjoying doing awful things to men, but she doesn't at all seem to be a personality that enjoys chaos.
-So. Anya's power source, that necklace. In "The Wish", does she give it to Cordelia? But later, she's wearing it, and Giles has to take it off of her in order to smash it? Is anyone else confused by this?

-What do birds say to each other?
-Am I the only one who likes fake food? Extremely processed food, where you know you can't pronounce a single ingredient? Just me and Xander? Anyone?
-Did you see X3? Did you like it?
-When people write of zee fantasy land nothing recognizable AU, why oh why don't they just write of zee original fic? Srsly.

P.S. When making Angel into a merman or fairy or Renaissance princess, please keep in mind that David Boreanaz has huge ass motherfuckin shoulders. When God made that man's shoulders, he was actually making a door. Then he thought, how about a head on this door? And so he built a head, and said to himself, "Father, Son, Holy Ghost, that is one motherfucking pretty head!" So he added pretty hands and pretty hips and pretty calves to match, but he forgot and left the door part of the shoulders, and to this day that is why David Boreanaz has trouble fitting through doors. And also why when you give him wee slender sloping downward shoulders when you make him into a horsie or blacksmith or bird-man, the baby Jesus motherfuckin cries.

PPS. He also made a pretty pretty neck. I love that neck.

Comments

[entrenous88.livejournal.com]

Ha! I always like these many-questions posts, but part of me flails (*flails*) because I want to answer them all, and answer them all at once, and somehow I don't think you would appreciate me leaving you fifty comments in a single thread giving you incredibly detailed answers to all of your inquiries.

But. Okay. Can I please see the "Angel teaches Connor to ice-skate fic?"

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Actually, I would appreciate it very much. I ask because I want to know!

Oh no, he just tells Connor he's going to go skating with him. Learning to skate is the sequel. I'm not sure what to do with it, actually. I sat down to write bondage and bonding came out.

[filmnoir6.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with the Music Man reference? :p heh Some musicals are okay (read: I said some, not all). heh

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Nothing's wrong with the Music Man. Even though I don't like it. No, I love musicals, just not most movie musicals and not the Music Man.

But the problem here is I went to go write an A/S conversation, you know the really great kind that turns into fighting that turns into sex, and intead I wrote them arguing whether Julie Andrews or Audrey Hepburn was the best choice for My Fair Lady. I mean, they're gay but they're not that gay!

[anelith.livejournal.com]

OK. I'm sitting at home with a sick kid, so I am going to attempt to answer as many of these questions as I can because I am BORED.

- I'm sure that a gifted fic writer such as yourself could come up with a great meta reason why Spike and Angel's ages are, let's call it fuzzy. However, in the real world I think the reason is that different writers were writing the eps and no, they weren't paying attention to the details. These aren't true fanboys and fangirls we're talking about here. At least not the kind of obsessive fangirls that live in our LJ community.

- Spike absorbs a lot of popular culture, I don't know whether he'd particularly *like* musicals, but he'd know about them, wouldn't he?

- Let's see that ice skating fic!

- As long as it takes. Definitely. Variety adds something, I think.

- If you want feedback on a chapter-by-chapter basis, then please post a chapter at a time, leaving me a day or two to mentally digest between. If you want feedback on the entirety, then go ahead and post the whole thing, but I may take a bit to get back to you... especially since summer's coming up and (*wails*) my reading time will be therefore reduced.

- I only *wish* I could give extremely long fb. You give excellent, insightful, and long fb. If that's a problem, then please let me have it too.

- hair to the shoulders, dirty blonde, straight. I don't even know what season that is from, but that's how I picture her. Is that even one of her many hair styles?

- only gradually, I think. My memory is very bad, so I'm not the best person to ask, but I seem to recall in the episode ("Doppelgangland"?) where Vamp!Willow comes to visit, Anya is kind of on the side of the vamps. She's not really very nice. She's human at that point, but obviously not empathetic or conscience-struck.

- no real explanation that I can think of other than just an enthusiasm for her job as vengeance demon. Cordelia's wish was carried out and the results were truly horrific, and Anya's job was well and truly DONE. Therefore she was pleased. Is that enough of an explanation? I'm not sure.

- I don't remember seeing Anya give her necklace to Cordelia at all. But then as I said my memory is Swiss cheese.

- I think mostly birds say, "I'M HERE! I'M HERE! COME MAKE BABIES WITH ME!"

- I like Cheetos. They're pretty fake.

- I haven't seen X3, and I'm dying to. We rewatched X1 and X2 this week in preparation, and had the babysitter all set up for tonight and THEN... my youngest son came down with a fever last night. So I'm going to grit my teeth and call the babysitter and cancel. We won't be able to go until next week.

*cries*

[tkp.livejournal.com]

-I'm both glad and not glad the writers aren't really "fans", per se.

-

-hee! I'm glad people are interested. It's been sitting on my computer for months because I fear it's cheesiness. Maybe I'll work on it some more.

-

-See, I think if I was reading I'd prefer the chapter by chapter mentally adjust idea. Then again, I'm more drawn to finished multi-chaptered fics I can spend three days straight reading. Anyway, I'm not sure you personally would be interested in this fic; I think at heart it's a B/A shipper fic. And it won't be finished for quite a while.

-

-I'm not sure. I always imagine Anya as short, curly, and bright blonde, and was surprised at a recent rewatch to see she ever had dark brown hair.

-

-See, I didn't think her job as a vengeance demon was well done, unless her job is to create chaos. I would think her job would be to 1. punish the offending party (do Xander or Buffy really get "punished"? It's more like everything just sucks), and 2. satisfy the "wronged" (and Cordelia claims right near the beginning of her wish fulfillment it was better before).

-Anya gives the necklace to Cordelia, saying it's a good luck charm and that she needs it more than her. When Cordy dies in the Wishverse, Giles removes the necklace, studies it, and learns from it that Cordy was granted a wish by Anyanka. Presumably, that is why when he summons Anyanka and sees her necklace, he understands that that's her power source...but that means two necklaces. huh?

-I think you're right.

-I love Cheetos.

-Awww. Best wishes to your son. That sucks for him and for you!

[lostakasha.livejournal.com]

I love this post beyond measure.

And oh I love long discussions in fb posts....love them, especially yours!!!!

David skates and plays ice hockey. I get all woobly when I see him in his pads and helmet. I have fantasies about Angel ice skating on ponds at night.

I have extremely detailed fantasies about DB playing baseball with a neighborhood league. In my mind he's a great outfielder (because DB is fast in real life, according to Mike Mazza). He's always on the team with a pal of mine, and there's beer and flirting and no Jaime and I really must go.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought he must skate because of his hockey fetish. I have fantasies about Angel skating on ponds with Buffy at night. Because I'm cheesy.

For some reason, I've always wanted to see the AtS team play a game of basketball. Guess I should write a fic. I always thought Fred would be good at it but Illyria would be funnier.

[coercion88.livejournal.com]

Ok. These are the ones I have an answer to, because what a brilliant way to arse about instead of working.
1. Ice skating and Connor. You must post that.
2. FB - you sent me some lovely long fb, and I really appreciated it. I never leave long fb because everyone's always said it already by the time I get there.
3. WIPs - I'll read anything if I like the author enough. If something's good, I'll have it whichever way it comes.
4. Anya's got curly-ish, S5 hair. Xander, unfortunately, stays at s7. I wish it were otherwise, because he just looks healthier in earlier eps.
5. Don't ask tricky plot questions. The whole of AtS comes undone if you do that.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

1. Just because Connor's cheek would get even redder and his eyes even brighter and he'd be all breathless and laughing.
2. I have a tendency to splooge all over fics I really enjoyed and then feel kind of embarrassed I talked so much. That's the way I felt about yours so I'm glad it was appreciated!

4. Poor Xander. He could have good hair, and good physique. But sometimes the way they styled him/dressed him/Nicky gained weight made him not as appealing as other times.
5. I like to make up explanations, though. If I can make it work in my head, I don't care that it makes no real sense.

[rahirah]

1. ME just doesn't care about picayune little details like how old characters are or what color eyes they have.

2. I'm pretty sure Spike has seen musicals, but he doesn't exactly come off as a rabid fan of the genre except insofar as he seems to like melodrama in general.

[bashipforever.livejournal.com]

First of all, I love your posts to death. They are total love. Now to answer the questions.


-Why did they fuck with Spike and Angel's ages so much? Were they really just not paying attention to what had come before, or were there reasons all the dates got switched around?

I really think they weren't paying attention and they couldn't do math. Or maybe they were so far behind in the writing they didn't have time to do math. Early on in the seasons it's easy to say oh they didn't realize they'd have rabid fans who would notice something like that. Later on, they knew. They just...I dunno...couldn't do math?

-Can Angel ice skate? Don't you think when he asked Buffy to ice skate in What's My Line Part 1 he meant to skate himself? How come there's not more cheesy ice!fic?

I'd have to say yes. One it was sorta a passtime during his human time. And yeah I think he meant to skate himself. He just sorta got busy with the watching Buffy (cause you know he was lurking, he just chose not to show himself until ugly guy showed up) and then with the ugly guy.

Oooo cheesy ice fic! *covers muses ears*

-How do you you prefer chapters to be doled out in long fics? Do you want 'em short, so you can zip through 'em? Do you want them just as long as it takes, to cover a scene or get to the point, whether it's 2 pages or 20? Or do you like them long?
-How about the posting of long fics? I've learned from experience a bunch of people stay away from WIPs, but what if *ahem* someone had a really long *finished* fic--would you still want them to post a chapter at a time? How have other people handled this in the past?

I think a chapter is just as long as it needs to be. If you rush a chapter to make it shorter it feels rushed, if you stretch it out to make it longer, it feels like it doesn't get to the point. I think if a chapter is well written you don't notice the length. I love long finished fic. I prefer to see it posted in one post because then I can bookmark it and read it at my leisure without having to add the chapters to the bookmark.

-What if the writer replies to your fb, and you want to reply back, does it feel weird having a long conversation in the fb thread of the story? What if the conversation has veered into meta/squee/something not fb, do you ever feel like the writer might not want to talk about it there because it's in the fb thread?

I love to follow fb conversations and discussions about writing and I love seeing them in my fb thread as a writer whether it veers into meta/squee or not.

-When people write of zee fantasy land nothing recognizable AU, why oh why don't they just write of zee original fic? Srsly.

OMG YES! I do not understand this! You can even say in the A/N: The character of John Doe is based looks wise on James Marsters or whatever! It's like hello!!!!! you've changed these characters so they aren't even recognizable, not to mention the world!! Just write original fic!! Maybe it's a FB thing? They know not as many people read original fic?? I dunno. I don't get it.

P.S. When making Angel into a merman or fairy or Renaissance princess, please keep in mind that David Boreanaz has huge ass motherfuckin shoulders. When God made that man's shoulders, he was actually making a door. Then he thought, how about a head on this door? And so he built a head, and said to himself, "Father, Son, Holy Ghost, that is one motherfucking pretty head!" So he added pretty hands and pretty hips and pretty calves to match, but he forgot and left the door part of the shoulders, and to this day that is why David Boreanaz has trouble fitting through doors. And also why when you give him wee slender sloping downward shoulders when you make him into a horsie or blacksmith or bird-man, the baby Jesus motherfuckin cries.

Dear God, again with the YES!!!!!! DB is not petite, slender or any of those other words that would imply he is anything other than a freakin' brick house. His shoulders are to DIE for. Why would you want to change that? btw this had me dying laughing.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Early on in the seasons it's easy to say oh they didn't realize they'd have rabid fans who would notice something like that.

It's just so hard for me to believe that the writers themselves wouldn't notice it. I mean, they may not be rabid fans, but when you think about all the work and research that goes into writing a teleplay, you'd think they'd do the relatively simple work to make the facts fit.

Oooo cheesy ice fic! *covers muses ears*

*pries hands off* Cheesy B/A ice fic. *nods*

I prefer to see it posted in one post because then I can bookmark it and read it at my leisure without having to add the chapters to the bookmark.

Oh, that makes a lot of sense!

You can even say in the A/N: The character of John Doe is based looks wise on James Marsters or whatever!

I know! Exactly! Instead I see fics that say in the "A/N: The character of Spike has Spike's name and looks but is otherwise nothing like Spike." I don't know why it would bother me so much LESS the other way around. Perhaps because I think the looks and names are the very least of a character.

DB is not petite, slender or any of those other words that would imply he is anything other than a freakin' brick house. His shoulders are to DIE for. Why would you want to change that?

WORD.

[43100.livejournal.com]

I...I wrote a fic in which Angel says he's going to teach Connor to skate. It was an accident!

Normally I'm not that big on Connor/Angel fics (b/c I live in south, the poster for incest, and it's like WTF these people up north write more incest-ridden fics than GA has witnessed in the past fifty yrs) and this includes G+ fics. But omg. That sounds SO CUTE.

Picture Anya in your head really quick. Did you think of her as bright blonde/dirty blonde/honey-light-brunette/dark brunette? Short or midlength hair? Curly or straight?

Usually just blonde and all smiley with her nose crinkled in an adorably cute way.

P.S. When making Angel into a merman or fairy or Renaissance princess, please keep in mind that David Boreanaz has huge ass motherfuckin shoulders. When God made that man's shoulders, he was actually making a door. Then he thought, how about a head on this door? And so he built a head, and said to himself, "Father, Son, Holy Ghost, that is one motherfucking pretty head!" So he added pretty hands and pretty hips and pretty calves to match, but he forgot and left the door part of the shoulders, and to this day that is why David Boreanaz has trouble fitting through doors. And also why when you give him wee slender sloping downward shoulders when you make him into a horsie or blacksmith or bird-man, the baby Jesus motherfuckin cries.

LMFAO. I completely agree with that.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

The part I wrote has a weirdly incestual vibe, but the follow-up I keep wanting to do and am embarrassed by because it is cheesy (the part with the actual ice skating), is pretty much completely innocent father son bonding. Because there's not enough of that and also ICE.

Yes. Anya is always adorable in my head. Then again, she always was on-screen, too. Emma Caulfield is just the cutest.

[cordelianne.livejournal.com]

You always post the best questions!! Hmmm, I will see how many I can take a stab at.

Why did they fuck with Spike and Angel's ages so much? Because math is hard? Seriously though, I think the writers get caught up in the themes and stories and don't pay attention to dates and stuff. I tend not bother calculating stuff, although I always notice those episodes when one day happens for some characters but two days for other characters.

Ok, is it completely OFF to think Spike might like musicals? I bet he's watched a lot of them - all those boring daylight hours - and pretends not to like them. But he secretly knows all the words to "Tonight" (from West Side Story).

Can Angel ice skate? Yes, and he's adorable doing it. And OMG, I want to see the fic you wrote!!!

Re: the fic questions. I like to leave detailed comments so I find it easier to do that when there's shorter chapters over a period of time. There's a few fics I've been reading recently that post weekly or every second day or daily, and it totally hooks me and I look forward to the next installment. I find that when the chapters are long it takes me a long time to read the fic and to keep up-to-date. Of course, I just finished a lengthy degree in English Lit so I have issues when faced with reading long stories.

But as an fb-er do you ever feel slightly uncomfortable leaving extremely long fb? I tend to leave detailed and long fb and have gotten good responses from authors, so I figure it's okay. I will occasionally send fb via email and I also give fb over IM.

Picture Anya in your head really quick. Shoulder length, blond curly hair. ie. early season 5.

I think I'm losing steam here but will answer this last question ...
Did you see X3? Did you like it? Yes. Yes. But not as much as the previous 2 movies. Still a fun time.

And I will use my Xander food icon in honour of your love of processed foods. *g*

[tkp.livejournal.com]

I tend not bother calculating stuff, although I always notice those episodes when one day happens for some characters but two days for other characters.

That's interesting--you mean one character has changed her clothes or something but other characters haven't?

all those boring daylight hours - and pretends not to like them. But he secretly knows all the words to "Tonight" (from West Side Story).

I think I forgot how obsessed he is with "Passions". Of course he watches musicals.

And OMG, I want to see the fic you wrote!!!

In what I have so far, there is no actual ice-skating. Every time I go to write the ice-skating I get overwhelmed by my own cheesiness and back away from the computer slowly.

On the fic questions: I like to leave detailed fb too, but reading a big long fic at once is almost a break for me, because I forget a lot of the little things I would've said, and so then don't spend so much time on fb'ing, which is a good thing for me because I have other porn fic things I could be reading/doing. But as a writer, I want to hear about each and every little chapter, and I wonder if it's overly narcissist to post each chapter one at a time just to hear fb on each individual bit.

I felt the same way about X3.

And I love that icon. I'm going to be saying that now, oh dear.

!

[rahirah]

Stupid LJ, doing what I tell it to instead of what I want it to!

3. I dunno. He's a hockey fan, apparently, so maybe, but if he does, why didn't he go skating with Buffy? (I have a vague idea for a cheesy skating story, but the vampire involved is not Angel.)

4. I prefer longish chapters. I read fast, and short ones are like potato chip crumbs.

5. If I'm going to read a long fic at one go, I'd rather it be archived at a website, because LJ sucks as an archive.

6. Nope!

7. Light auburn, straight, shoulder-length bob.

8. That's a really interesting question. My personal assumption is that vengeance demons don't lose their human souls the way vampires do. I base that on the fact that everyone seems to assume Anya is fully human when she loses her powers, with no need to re-soul her, and that Hallie had a soul to be sacrified to free Anya later. Also, Anya definitely has regrets and remorse while a vengeance demon. So vengeance demons, to me, are humans who possess demon aspects (rather like Slayers, in a way): hybrids rather than full demons, and while their demon aspects and their training as a vengeance demon may affect their consciences, I don't think there's a qualitative change as such.

9. I think Anya was just proud of herself for carrying off a particularly complex and demanding wish, and thought it was cool.

10. not sure. I'd have to rewatch the episode.

11. "My tree, my tree, my tree, I'd make a great mate, my tree, my tree, check out the shiny feathers, my tree..."

12. Yes. yes, you are.

13. Not yet.

14. Well... in some cases an AU can be a meta-comment on canon (I'm thinking of things like (Was it Brat Queen?)'s story where the human AU turns out to be a wishverse in the end, or Jennyo (I think) re-doing AtS as the Canterbury Tales and this incredible, sly, clever thing you couldn't possibly do by remaining within the bounds of canon. But in a lot of cases I think that people just want to write a scenario that strokes their kinks (sexual or otherwise) and populate it with people whom they find attractive. Or they like the characters, but don't care about the setting, or actively dislike the hooror/fantasy milieu. Personally I don't get this last motivation because I think a character is shaped by their environment and if Buffy led a completely diffenent life then she's not Buffy, she's someone else who happens to look like SMG. I don't see anything wrong with writing AUs for the last two reasons, but they don't generally result in stories I have any interest in reading.

I have no opinion on DB as a merman, but on those same lines, even on their best days, neither Nick Brendan nor JM were in the running for Mr. Universe. They both have muscles, and very nice muscles they are, but said muscles are not of such vast proportions as to require them to buy specially tailored shirts. Just sayin.

Re: !

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

3. I dunno. He's a hockey fan, apparently, so maybe, but if he does, why didn't he go skating with Buffy?

I thought he did go out onto the ice. But I think he was looking at that date as being about giving her a chance to relax and find a peaceful sort of zone, so he was content to just get out of her way and let her do that. And watch her, because he likes to watch.

I wouldn't really consider it indicative of whether or not he could actually skate. OTOH, the fact that he knows the locations of random ice rinks in southern california off the top of his head might indicate that he's been there before.

[ba4ever.livejournal.com]

Erm, I think Angel was willing to make a fool of himself on ice just to please Buffy.

They didn't fuck with their ages on purpose, the writers sometimes (more often than not) have no regards for canon *rolls*. They're dumb if they think we don't notice.

I don't have a preference, I say get to your point and get out (whether it's long or short, doesn't matter as long as you say and do what you had to).

Long finished fic, I'd prefer it all being posted. Some people read faster than others etc, so I don't like chapters being posted when it's already complete. Just give to me full on baby.

I think of Any as midlength wavy brunette.

-Is there any change in Anya's soul/conscience/sense of morality/etc when she turns from a demon to a human, and vice versa?
Nope. I actually am not the biggest fan of Anya, wouldn't go as far as dislike, but casual disinterest moreso. She had a lot of potential after Selfless (well before that) but then nothign. A whole big fat goose egg. Plus, if you see her in S3, she's "normal" as opposed to S4, she gets all weird and talks like a robot.

-So. Anya's power source, that necklace. In "The Wish", does she give it to Cordelia? But later, she's wearing it, and Giles has to take it off of her in order to smash it? Is anyone else confused by this?

I chose not to think about this...because it's a great episode. Although you could wank that the "new" world wasn't real. So she didn't actually have it.

Hated X3. Terrible, canon butchering omg let's throw in random mutants and then make them less important than they really are! They jam packed too much into it. Arc Angel did absolute dick. Um..hello Colussus! You're made out of bloody steel! I think you could have helped out a lot more than you did. Why were there only 6 mutants who cared enough about the state of the world?



P.S. When making Angel into a merman or fairy or Renaissance princess, please keep in mind that David Boreanaz has huge ass motherfuckin shoulders. When God made that man's shoulders, he was actually making a door. Then he thought, how about a head on this door? And so he built a head, and said to himself, "Father, Son, Holy Ghost, that is one motherfucking pretty head!" So he added pretty hands and pretty hips and pretty calves to match, but he forgot and left the door part of the shoulders, and to this day that is why David Boreanaz has trouble fitting through doors. And also why when you give him wee slender sloping downward shoulders when you make him into a horsie or blacksmith or bird-man, the baby Jesus motherfuckin cries.

PPS. He also made a pretty pretty neck. I love that neck.

AHHHHHHHHHI LUFF YOU SO HARD! I absolutely DIE at his huge, broad chest and shoulders. EGADS!

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Long finished fic, I'd prefer it all being posted. Some people read faster than others etc, so I don't like chapters being posted when it's already complete. Just give to me full on baby.

I think I'd probably feel that way as a reader. As a writer I want to see people comment on every single chapter. I'm such a whore.

She had a lot of potential after Selfless (well before that) but then nothign. A whole big fat goose egg.

Well, I love Anya. But that's kinda all of S7 if you think about it.

I chose not to think about this...because it's a great episode. Although you could wank that the "new" world wasn't real. So she didn't actually have it.

It's definitely one of my favorite eps. But I'm thinking about doing a fic involving it in which the logistics, however screwy, seem kinda important. It does seem to me like there could be Anya's necklace, given to Cordelia, from the nonwishverse 'verse, and then Anya's necklace that exists in wishverse. I have no idea.

I though X3 was ok. It was decent as an action movie and as a comic book movie. But I adore X1 and really like X2, and as a follow up to those this did nothing for me--both potential wise and continuity-wise. There was no mention of where Nightcrawler went, which I thought was so stupid, and the characters that were big in the previous movie were all shunted aside in this so Jean bloody Gray could be scary. But I always hated the Phoenix Saga anyway.

I absolutely DIE at his huge, broad chest and shoulders. EGADS!

My thoughts exactly.

[violaclaire.livejournal.com]

Why did they fuck with Spike and Angel's ages so much? Were they really just not paying attention to what had come before, or were there reasons all the dates got switched around?

I believe Joss's explanation when the first "huh?" moment came was, "I suck at math." Not really an explanation, but whatever.

Ok, is it completely OFF to think Spike might like musicals? There's that "76 trombone" line, and he's seen Les Mis in order to tell Angel it's not all that. Any other proof?

He watched Passions and Dawson's Creek. Musicals can have similar heightened emotions (not a bad thing, really, I love musicals), so yeah, why not.

Can Angel ice skate? Don't you think when he asked Buffy to ice skate in What's My Line Part 1 he meant to skate himself? Can David Boreanaz ice skate? How come there's not more cheesy ice!fic? I...I wrote a fic in which Angel says he's going to teach Connor to skate. It was an accident!

I don't know about *more* ice fic, but I definitely saw an AU somewhere that had Buffy and Angel as figure skaters. But I think Angel knows how to skate. It was probably a fairly common pastime in Ireland in the 18th century.

And I really want to see your Connor fic!

How do you you prefer chapters to be doled out in long fics? Do you want 'em short, so you can zip through 'em? Do you want them just as long as it takes, to cover a scene or get to the point, whether it's 2 pages or 20? Or do you like them long?

Basically, I want them to be as long as it takes. I want something to happen, and I want it to be longer than a paragraph, but anything else is fair game.

Picture Anya in your head really quick. Did you think of her as bright blonde/dirty blonde/honey-light-brunette/dark brunette? Short or midlength hair? Curly or straight?

I always see her with her OMWF hair--reddish blonde and slightly curly.

Is there any change in Anya's soul/conscience/sense of morality/etc when she turns from a demon to a human, and vice versa?

My theory is that she retains her soul when she becomes a demon, but that her rage and anger dull her conscience, and living with other demons reinforces that.

Has anyone ever done any meta/had an explanation for why Anya liked Wishverse? In "The Wish", she says it's both "wonderful" and "exciting". Of course there's that difficulty establishing her soul/conscience etc as a demon, and also they weren't very careful with Anya as a character there because they didn't know/weren't sure she'd play such a big role later. But later she does talk about enjoying doing awful things to men, but she doesn't at all seem to be a personality that enjoys chaos.

I don't think she knew when she granted Cordelia's wish that Buffy was the Slayer, so the resulting world was an unexpected bonus. She probably thought that without Buffy, Xander would be a very unpopular geek, as opposed to a semi-unpopular one. Instead, she got Xander dead, and a wish that rebounded on the wisher.

Plus, she did like the Russian Revolution, and you can't say that wasn't chaotic.

When people write of zee fantasy land nothing recognizable AU, why oh why don't they just write of zee original fic? Srsly.

Larger readership? Or something. I don't really get it.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

I definitely saw an AU somewhere that had Buffy and Angel as figure skaters.

AHAHAHHA! The Olympics makes out like the skaters' lives are like soaps, anyway.

I always see her with her OMWF hair--reddish blonde and slightly curly.

Seems like everyone's Anya has different hair.

My theory is that she retains her soul when she becomes a demon, but that her rage and anger dull her conscience, and living with other demons reinforces that.

It just doesn't make sense on the level of the way Jossverse usually handles things. Anya comes into great power and kills thousands probably and does horrible terrible things for centuries. Then she comes to Sunnydale and gets a lot of people killed, and while that gets undone, she does try to get Willow killed after she becomes human. And yet she feels forgiven and accepted. Faith, on the other hand, comes into great power, kills a few people, and is The Bad Guy.

I don't think she knew when she granted Cordelia's wish that Buffy was the Slayer, so the resulting world was an unexpected bonus.

Oh, I never thought of that before! What an interesting theory.

[jgracio.livejournal.com]

1) Because ME/JW doesn't really care about canon, and will gladly tweak, ignore or outright change things if it suits the story. This is both good and bad.

2) He likes Passions. Why wouldn't he like musicals? Dunno if he would admit it though.

3) I think so. He's been around long enough to learn, and he must have spent time in Northern Europe.

4) Don't have a preference, I trust the writer.

5) A WIP, with a constant schedule is very exciting and probably the best way to bring attention. A gingle post, all finished is great too, but less comments.

6) Depends on the writer. If I know them, I have zero problems having long conversations in the FB thread. It's LJ, it's made for discussions.

7) She's nude! :) Huh, blonde-ish, slightly curly, to the shoulders.

8) Nope. A vampire changes, the demon absorbs the memories but isn't the same person, but that's not what happens to vengeance demons. They remain, pretty much, the same, though living for so long, with their powers and separate from people would make them pretty alien to a normal person.

9) Dunno, though I don't think it's hard to explain. Anya loved a vengeance. Dead men. Loads of dead men. That the wisher died didn't concern her. The Wishverse was a job well done, with lots of dead men.

10) Don't remember her giving it to Cordelia.

11) "Who's the better target? That bald dude?"

12) Hum, I like a few things, but usually I like my food to be something found in nature.

13) Saw it, liked it as an action flick, it's okay but not great.

14) Because ze French Nobleman Spike can be instantly identified, with ze writer only needing to change some attributes, all other attributes and expected behaviours are already expected. French Nobleman Spike likes a spot of violence? Of course! Spike is a poet? Mais oui! Will Baron Spike fall for Countess Buffy the English spy, France's worst enemy, the Chosen One of the English Crown? Obviously!

I'd prefer it if they wrote original fic though, less crap to clutter the Buffy fanfiction places. :)

[tkp.livejournal.com]

1. I'd love to know if dates were tweaked to suit the story, as opposed to sheer carelessness.

5. Ha! Yeah, that's the way I was thinking about it, from the whorish want fb writer stand point. It's possible that as a reader, though, I'd just want it all at once.

7. Hahahah!

9. She did have a thing for punishing men. The thing was, men and women were both punished fairly equally in Wishverse. Also, eliminating Buffy like that put the Master, a man, in power, and the strongest woman, Buffy, out of power. As a woman who liked to see men grovel, it doesn't make sense to me.

13. That's pretty much how I felt about it.

14. I meant completely unrecognizable AUs, in which the characters don't actually behave the same. I mean, you see the name and expect certain attributes and sets of behaviors, and the physical description is there (sometimes, when Angel's not a mermaid and Spike's cheekbones aren't slashing Buffy to ribbons), but the behaviors are completely different. Although I really like you cracked out French AU ;o)

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

1) They don't pay attention to details like birth dates. Buffy's birthday changes month and year from S1 to S2. More importantly, characteristics are viewed as fluid and generally there to serve convenience of the plot. Hence an Angel who can't break a flimsy bicycle lock or mesh door one week, and can throw around cars another.

2) Yes, Angel can skate.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

1. In "I Robot, You Jane," Buffy's birthdate changes within three shots. The evil dude calls her up on the computer and it says '79; two seconds later it says '80.

It's the "convenience to the plot" I was really asking about. I see why they're inconsistent about stuff like vampire strength. There's no reason to be inconsistent about the dates other than carelessness. Which I mean, ok, give it to 'em, but I was interested in whether they made Spike a certain age and then realized no, he really had to've been turned in 1880 for some plot reason or other. Or perhaps a costume/set reason, or something.

[lillianmorgan.livejournal.com]

Tee-hee. Question post!
Can Angel ice skate? Don't you think when he asked Buffy to ice skate in What's My Line Part 1 he meant to skate himself?
Isn't he an Ice Hockey fan? Doesn't Spike have a joke at his expense over that? Or hang on - is that fanon? ::flails::
Picture Anya in your head really quick. Did you think of her as bright blonde/dirty blonde/honey-light-brunette/dark brunette? Short or midlength hair? Curly or straight?
Good question! Um. Pass?
Re: Anya. I believe ctofine gave a presentation at the latest Slayage conference on Anya. Perhaps there might be/there is a paper online somewhere?
Now, I feel totally certain that because there are quite a few answers above me that anything else I will say will be redundant ::sniffle::
Oh no! Haven't see X3. But I'm going to. Tomorrow.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

DB is a hockey fan, and they made Angel one on account of it. He buys baby!Connor little hockey gear and in S5 is watching hockey. Can't remember if Spike teases him about it, though.

I just need to start reading up on Anya meta, I suppose. I love Anya herself, but the way her demon past is handled REALLY doesn't sit right with me at all.

Have fun seeing X3!

[lirm35m.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, do I detect the presence of a long, finished fic? Ohhh, post it please! As for how you post it, I don't think that most people mind reading a WIP IF they know it's already finished and just being doled out piece by piece. I think the problem most people have with WIPs is taking a chance on getting involved with something that a) might never be finished and is essentially disappointing and b) might veer drastically off course according to the author's issues/moods/blocks/etc without giving that author the opportunity to edit it in its totality to ensure that it makes sense, that plot holes are resolved, that characters aren't left dangling, and that construction is consistent. If you've already written the fic, these issues don't really apply, so I'm pretty sure that either way you go, you probably won't be alienating anyone who's even remotely sensible :-)

Just remember that you're much more likely to draw a bigger audience/get more feedback if you post over the course of a few days because multiple posts mean that the chances are higher that most of your flist/lurkers will actually see it.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess I don't consider a finished fic a WIP because one is no longer working on it. So all that stigma some associate with WIPs definitely would be there, right.

I like that so many people have mentioned how to garner more fb with a long piece. Because of course, whore that I am, that's all I'm really interested in. No, that's not true, but entrenous88 pointed out above that posting a longer fic on a schedule is like a nice contract between reader and writer and I like that thought.

And no, I don't actually have a long finished fic, but I have a long unfinished fic, which I hope to finish some day, and it's so long that I've begun to wonder even how I'll post it. But it's mostly a B/A shipper fic and I'm not sure that's your thing.

Thanks for your thoughts!

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

-Ok, is it completely OFF to think Spike might like musicals? There's that "76 trombone" line, and he's seen Les Mis in order to tell Angel it's not all that. Any other proof?

Picked that one - shocker! He also references Yma Súmac in OMWF, which proves that he's also familiar with Peruvian lounge singers, or at least a Sondheim fan. I caused him to diss "South Pacific" in a fic (er, which I think I told you) but that's definitely a case of me Mary-Crazydiamond-Sueing my own SP thoughts in there. I liked rahirah's thoughts on how it ties in with his love of melodrama, though.

And c'mon, how excited was Angel about the ballet ("I saw their production of Giselle in eighteen-ninety. I cried like a baby. And I was evil!") so imagining Spike queueing up to catch Phantom doesn't stretch my imagination. Much.

Um...dude...we've covered so much of this...Anya's a blonde to me, I like food with no ingredients you can pronounce in the form of Ding Dongs (sponge cake no.)

But later, she's wearing it, and Giles has to take it off of her in order to smash it? And later Anya demonstrates in "Older and Far Away" that they can reverse Hallie's wish granting by smashing her necklace, but this never occurs to Buffy (or anyone else - namely, Xander) in "Selfless" which would have been much easier and morally straining than, you know, that whole sword-through-the-heart thing. But that requires more meta-y thoughts than my brain can hold at the moment.

But yay - questions!

[tkp.livejournal.com]

He also references Yma Súmac in OMWF,

Oh! I didn't recognize that!

so imagining Spike queueing up to catch Phantom doesn't stretch my imagination. Much.

AHAHHAHAHHA! I'm going to be stuck writing POTO cross-over fic now!

but this never occurs to Buffy (or anyone else - namely, Xander) in "Selfless" which would have been much easier

I can't believe I never noticed that. Yet another reason for me to really hate that ep.

[ravenwings-7.livejournal.com]

-Why did they fuck with Spike and Angel's ages so much?
Because the writers only have a week to write a filmable script and would rather spend a couple hours tweaking the plot and dialog than spend the same amount of time trying to remember the specifics of an offhand line written a year ago, which is why the numbers end up close but not quite right; I can't speak to later eps, but Angel's was only four years off in "The Prodigal" (set in 1753, in previous canon would have been 1757), Spike's was six or seven years off (turned in 1880, if he had been 126 in "the Initiative" it would've been 1873/4 - I usually just pretend he counts human years as well, and said that he was 146), as I tend to attribute the statement that he was "barely 200" in "School Hard" to the Watcher's Council assuming that the Chinese Slayer was killed by a vampire much older than 20.
Hmm... that may have been more illustration than that point needed...

-Ok, is it completely OFF to think Spike might like musicals?
This is the man who, at his evillest, considered Love Boat to be one of the reasons the world should be saved (or he did in the script, I don't know if it made the final cut). Of course he likes musicals.

I was going to answer way more of these, but I got distracted by the Suns vs. Mavs game, and now it's bedtime. Maybe tomorrow.

[tkp.livejournal.com]

Because the writers only have a week to write a filmable script and would rather spend a couple hours tweaking the plot and dialog than spend the same amount of time trying to remember the specifics of an offhand line written a year ago,

If they were living in the 19th c., I'd buy it. They had searchable databases; it would've taken two seconds, yo.

This is the man who, at his evillest, considered Love Boat to be one of the reasons the world should be saved (or he did in the script, I don't know if it made the final cut).

Well, he did quote a song as reason for the world to be saved in Becoming Part 2 ("goodbye Picadilly/farewell Leicester [bloody] Square")

And heh. The questions are long, easily distractablefrom. I don't care that that's not a word.

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

Why did they fuck with Spike and Angel's ages so much? Were they really just not paying attention to what had come before, or were there reasons all the dates got switched around?
They weren't that far out for Angel. Mostly he just says a vague 'two hundred and change' or whatever.
For Spike, they changed his age when they changed his sire from Angel to Dru, which they did because they reckoned it gave a better story. Then they gave his age as 126 because they had decided he should be turned around 1900 so they were giving his vamp age plus his human age, only then they realised he must be old enough to have known pre-soul Angelus so they had him turned in 1880 after all. That, incidentally, is the origin of the canon that he was 27 when he was turned. I wank the 7 years difference between his actual vamp age and what he said as being that the older you get the harder it is to remember your real age - I know I always have to think quite hard before I know mine.

Ok, is it completely OFF to think Spike might like musicals? There's that "76 trombone" line, and he's seen Les Mis in order to tell Angel it's not all that. Any other proof?
He wanted to take his mother to the opera.

Can Angel ice skate? Don't you think when he asked Buffy to ice skate in What's My Line Part 1 he meant to skate himself?
In my experience no man invites a girl to an ice-rink unless he can skate really well. There is no reason Angel shouldn't be able to skate, he has been to several countries where skating would be possible and he likes ice-hocky, so I'd say yes.

How do you you prefer chapters to be doled out in long fics?
If the whole fic is written I want it posted in one go rather than artificially broken up. Under all circumstances I want chapter breaks as infrequently as possible, I hate clicking on. And I am unlikely to feedback more than once regardless of how it is posted.

as an fb-er do you ever feel slightly uncomfortable leaving extremely long fb?
I have never in my life tried to second-guess the reaction of the poster to my fb - I leave exactly the fb that I want to leave, no more, no less, in terms of criticism, length and anything else.

Picture Anya in your head really quick.
If asked, I'd say Anya was dark blond. In response to the exercise set she was brunette. That is interesting.

What do birds say to each other?
Birds have two types of call.

• Display calls, which can be subdivided into attracting a mate and protecting a territory, these calls can include the various sorts of mimicry and show regional variations and dialects.
• Alarm Calls, which can be subdivided into warnings for danger in teh air and danger on the ground. In times of extreme stress (such as when eggs have been stolen) these can spill over into repetitive panic calls long after the danger has in fact gone.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

So they project Spike's human age at 27-ish? It's funny how that will change for a viewer over time. On first watching, I didn't think much of it but assumed mid-twenties, whereas with latter season episodes I would have pegged him as mid-thirties. Though some of the revised estimate is a factor of (1) Marsters aging and (2) knowing his actual age.

[ravenwings-7.livejournal.com]

-How do you you prefer chapters to be doled out in long fics?
I like chapters to be as long as they need to be, which tends to mean short-to-moderate, relative to the story. Really long chapters, in my experience, tend have a few paragraph breaks within them that could have been chapter breaks, but were ignored.

-How about the posting of long fics? I've learned from experience a bunch of people stay away from WIPs, but what if *ahem* someone had a really long *finished* fic--would you still want them to post a chapter at a time?
Yes, actually. I'm a slow reader, so I tend to avoid really long fics, as they often lead to sleep deprivation. I'm more likely to read a long fic if it's spoon-fed to me, or if the chapters are separate and linked through a directory page.
As to the WiP issue, I only consciously avoid WiPs that I know are inactive, and even then there are exceptions (I am scarred for life by eliade's cliffhanger-cancellation of Season Noir even though I knew it hadn't been updated for over a year). I'm more likely to be stopped by the slow-reading thing than the "OMG is she going to finish it?" thing.

-Picture Anya in your head really quick.
Shortish (but not really short) light brown hair, usually pulled back or slightly curly (my mental imaging is being indecisive).

-Is there any change in Anya's soul/conscience/sense of morality/etc when she turns from a demon to a human, and vice versa?
No, or at least not through supernatural means. When she first became a Vengeance Demon (in addition to being really pissed off at that point) through some point well after she became human, she was in a position and mental state where the vengeance deal was morally right. After a while, her perspective changed, as sometimes happens to people.

-Has anyone ever done any meta/had an explanation for why Anya liked Wishverse?
Two words: Power. Trip. And who knows, maybe things really were better. In Cleveland, at least. Buffy probably didn't die, so neither did Kendra, which means Faith and her (female) watcher never messed with Kakistos. Anya was so lacking in perspective at that point, she probably considered Drusilla never being kidnapped away from Angelus to be a good thing, as well.

-So. Anya's power source, that necklace. In "The Wish", does she give it to Cordelia? But later, she's wearing it, and Giles has to take it off of her in order to smash it? Is anyone else confused by this?
My theory is that upon the granting of Cordelia's Wish, the Amulet of Power returned to Anyanka, and the one Cordelia was wearing was just a talisman, to identify her as having had a wish granted.

-What do birds say to each other?
Depends on the type. I know orioles bicker about interior decorating.

-Am I the only one who likes fake food? Extremely processed food, where you know you can't pronounce a single ingredient?
I <3 junk food. Though oddly enough, my favorite junk food (Chili Cheese Fritos) has a surprising amount of not-fake ingredients. Hmm.

-Did you see X3? Did you like it?
Not yet! I think I'm prepared for any badness I might encounter, so I expect to enjoy it. It's got Callisto! (OK, she's badly cast, but nobody could have played comicbook Callisto anyway, so I don't care!)

-When people write of zee fantasy land nothing recognizable AU, why oh why don't they just write of zee original fic?
I think rahirah sums it up fairly well. Honestly, I actually like some human AUs (although I'm very picky about which ones I even start, and often stop reading after a page or two due to bad characterization). I find it really interesting when an author manages to write someone true to both their TV characterization and their AU situation (nautibitz's human AU Buffy impresses me to no end in this respect).

He also made a pretty pretty neck. I love that neck.
Very true, although I am more of a fan of his hands. I'm a great admirer of hands.