Personal Canon Meme....Again

[sunclouds33]

Looking to do my favorite meme again and ask for personal canon prompts. I will give you my headcanon for whatever characters or situation you assign. Choose a number and a character/pairing & I'll take it from there. If something kickstarts my muse, there may even be fic in it. Feel free to pick more than one. My fandoms are in my tags

Comments

[sunclouds33]

Aw, I was really hoping to make something out of Willow's "I slept with Riley" as the dramatic bid for Buffy's anger and then, "to cover up my sleazy affair with Angel" as when it heads an obvious joke. BECAUSE IT'S SO FUNNY. However, I can't get past how Willow almost definitely picked that order because of recency bias and how Riley would be a more credible two-timer because he's a person without a Perfect Happiness clause.

However, my romantic canon is almost deliberately UN-romantic. IMO, Willow is someone who spot the sexual appeal of a wide range of people. She can identify as a lesbian, but she viscerally gets the sexual appeal of Oz, Xander, Giles, Spike, Angel, I'd wager Robin Wood although they didn't interact a lot. However, Willow can see the sexy in those characters because it's an unusual, idiosyncratic appeal. Riley, by contrast, is just so mainstream that while Willow liked him a great deal, she didn't find him hot because you find Riley hot by authentically matching what general society finds hot.

So, Willow's super-friendly to Riley and she likes him but she doesn't treat like the resident dreamboat. "Passing by in your GI Joe outfit?" A favorite little Willow-turn of phrase, there. Acting like Buffy should obviously not try to hide her superior strength, even it means Riley coming off by contrast. Fully confident that Buffy and Riley could easily put in a pin in the making-out and Buffy won't feel short-changed to be interrupted for a surprise party. And finally:

WILLOW: Don't be too hard on yourself.
BUFFY: He's right, Will. If Riley and I hadn't ... gotten so wrapped up in each other, none of this would've happened.
ANYA: True. Feel shame.
(Riley looks like he is doing just that.)
XANDER: My girlfriend. Mistress of the learning plateau.
WILLOW: Really, it wasn't your fault. You were under the influence of powerful magicks.
BUFFY: We were like zombies. I had no control over myself at all.
WILLOW: Must have been horrible.

I mean, Willow's down with Buffy wanting sex with her boyfriend. However finding Riley so hot that they could happily go for HOURS and fondly look back on a MoTW that hurt people because it resulted with Riley-sexage? Doesn't compute for Willow.

[velvetwhip]

Interesting take - but then you always have a thought-provoking and credible perspective.

Gabrielle

[sunclouds33]

Aw, thanks!