Favorite Fan Story Tweaks

[nerd4hire]

You know what a fanwank is of course. But just in case you don't, it's when you make something make sense in say your favorite TV series by adding some creative background reasoning.

I saw this one one time where this guy wrote like a ten page treatise on how vampires couldn't see themselves in the mirror, but they could have their picture taken, because of different frequencies of light, or some such thing. It was very technical. I didn't understand it, but I was impressed.

There used to be a great one floating around the internet about how the Cheese Man was significant in spite of the fact Joss said he wasn't.

But here's my personal favorite fanwanks...

Alternate Time-line Dawn - In this one the monks didn't actually create a whole new Dawn from nothing. Dawn already existed in an alternate timeline. The monks simply merged the pertinent bits of the two timelines. This one also works for how Connor can die at the end of Angel 4, yet live to have a happy life in Season 5. It works for a lot of stuff. It's fun to apply it to Normal Again.

The First and Jasmine were in cahoots - I just like this one because it's fun, not because it's necessary. And you can find lots of fuzzy support for it when you start looking, and it can add some sense to some stuff.

The Slayer line transferred once more into Buffy after the spell in Bargaining - OK, this one's my personal favorite. It might even actually be true. I've argued it so many times I know all the arguments for and against, so don't even try me. You'll lose. I like it, because once you bite the bullet, and accept it, all the mysteries of Season 7 can make sense. I almost worry that one day Joss will flat out say, "No the line still runs through Faith, and only Faith". That would be personally depressing.

I got the idea for this thread when I started reading all the complicated fanwanks for the puzzling Season 8, Time of Your Life arc. Time manipulation is a mind-bender. I personally prefer a simple Time Loop fanwank for that one. No muss, no fuss, and everything falls in to place.

Anybody else got any favorites?

 

[Emmie]

I got the idea for this thread when I started reading all the complicated fanwanks for the puzzling Season 8, Time of Your Life arc. Time manipulation is a mind-bender. I personally prefer a simple Time Loop fanwank for that one. No muss, no fuss, and everything falls in to place.

Heh. 🙂 So how does your time loop explanation play out?

Anybody else got any favorites?

I think my favorite is "The Slayer line transferred once more into Buffy after the spell in Bargaining." It just helps me understand Season 7 and how Buffy living again weakened the slayer line. If one Slayer coming back from the dead weakened the line so the First could attack, what does 1800 slayer do to it? (Sorry, my mind works in a 'how does this relate to Season 8' fashion.)

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

My favourite Fanwank is:
Buffy loved Spike



Hehe, can of worms meet can opener

 

[nerd4hire]

Heh. 🙂 So how does your time loop explanation play out?

Dark Willow is trapped in a time loop. All those clever background machinations she seems to be maneuvering are all simply details she's already seen. Thus she knows Gunther is coming to attack Harth. She knows everything is going to work, because she's already seen it all happen.

But she's trapped in a time loop. She wants out. The time loop was created when Willow came through the portal the first time, and battled Dark Willow. Dark Willow killed her. This was a time paradox, and created a loop. Dark Willow has come to the conclusion the only way to break the loop is rather than battle herself she has to create a situation where Buffy has to kill her. Thus the cryptic line, "the most important thing about death isn't who dies, it's who kills them". You see she can't kill herself, or it will create a time loop. It's almost metaphoric. Nothing is finished if she kills herself.

 

[Charlie Kaur]

Very interesting, the name of the thread had me expecting something very...erm...different!

 

[AndrewCrossett]

The whole Slayer Line question is interesting because the writers (even Joss) never seemed quite sure about it themselves. Supposedly the line transferred to Kendra, and then Faith, leaving Buffy *a* Slayer instead of *the* Slayer, and ending Buffy's ability to activate a new Slayer through her death. (No new one was activated upon her death at the end of season 5, for example.)

But as late as "Chosen," Joss still has the First Evil taunting Buffy about how none of her Potentials can ever become anything more than that until *she* dies. You'd think the source of all Evil in the world would have access to better intelligence than that.

I've always wondered if, after Willow activated all the Potentials in "Chosen," any new Potentials are being created? If so, would a new Slayer still be activated upon Faith's death, and only upon her death? If not, are Buffy and her Slayer Army the last of their kind, because Willow's spell "blew the wad" of all the magic that was supposed to power future Slayers? Was it only in Fray's time that the power finally replenished itself enough to create a new one? Did Melaka even become a full-fledged Slayer until she got the Scythe and drew on its power?

 

[nerd4hire]

Here's another one. You know how Buffy rises stronger after being defeated by The Master? It happens again with The First. What's that all about?

There's a bunch for that one. Buffy regains her confidence. It's a psychological boost or... Buffy connects to some sort of supernatural power such as the slayer source, the PTB, or the Godhead energy or... Buffy makes a connection with The Master, and his power upon her death. Now me I like all those, so I say why can't they all be a little bit true.

Another one you see a lot of different fanwanks for is what makes it snow in Amends.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

As far as Buffy's supposedly "mortal wound" in Chosen, I like to think that Willow's spell created a sudden, huge one-time power surge in the general "Slayer mojo" which momentarily greatly enhanced Buffy's normal extra healing abilities. Not enough to save someone from an instantly fatal injury (like Amanda's) but enough that if a Slayer was still breathing, she was going to be OK.

 

[xaphania]

Here's one I've seen a lot of, in fics...

The reason Spike and Angel appear to have aged throughout the series is because they've been living on pigs blood and/or the weight of their souls.

 

[Airam]

I really like to think that the Normal Again thing was an alternate time-line and that when that demon infected Buffy it caused her to have visions of that other time-line... made them both kind of bleed into eachother in her mind... its just such an interesting episode I like the idea that it was more than just fabricated hallucinations....

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

I really like to think that the Normal Again thing was an alternate time-line and that when that demon infected Buffy it caused her to have visions of that other time-line... made them both kind of bleed into eachother in her mind... its just such an interesting episode I like the idea that it was more than just fabricated hallucinations....

What's wrong with the idea that Normal Again is the reality? It doesn't cheapen the 'verse in any way, and I like it because of the fact that the end of the episode suggests it.

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

I really like to think that the Normal Again thing was an alternate time-line and that when that demon infected Buffy it caused her to have visions of that other time-line... made them both kind of bleed into eachother in her mind... its just such an interesting episode I like the idea that it was more than just fabricated hallucinations....

Interesting - I've always seen it as a cross dimensional thing.

On that parallel world, Buffy was catatonic, maybe even dreaming of this world a demon created a bridge, one that Buffy could cross.


Also, why has Fanwank been taken out of the thread title?

 

[plenilune]

Another one you see a lot of different fanwanks for is what makes it snow in Amends.

Oh, the snow in "Amends" was just basic atmospheric excitation. 😀