Comments | eowyn_315: Life Lessons (1/1)

eowyn_315

Life Lessons (1/1)

Sep 12, 2008 22:43

Title: Life Lessons
Characters: Buffy, Dawn, Spike
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Buffy gets a lesson in parenting when Dawn's teenage rebellion tests their relationship.

( Life Lessons )

meta, char: buffy, char: spike, commentary, char: dawn

Comments 23

alwaysjbj September 13 2008, 03:33:36 UTC

in the end, I think I almost like it
You should like it, sweetie. It is fabulous. The character voices are, as always, perfect...and the whole scenario could so easily slip into S6 canon.

eowyn_315 September 13 2008, 15:36:35 UTC

Thank you! That's a relief to hear, lol.

ladycat713 September 13 2008, 03:54:57 UTC

I like it. Buffy really did bail on the parenting in season 6 and she didn't do much better in season 7.

eowyn_315 September 13 2008, 15:37:35 UTC

Thanks! Yeah, she did... I really think part of it is that she just wasn't ready for that kind of responsibility, but the whole resurrection thing certainly didn't help.

speakr2customrs September 13 2008, 06:22:23 UTC

A lovely bittersweet story. The only fault I could find with it is that the last paragraph doesn't quite have enough impact to bring it to a proper close. A slight rearrangement of the words there, or one more line of speech from Buffy, would probably be enough to rectify that - very minor - imperfection.

eowyn_315 September 13 2008, 15:40:03 UTC

Thanks. You know, that last section went through at least 4 revisions on its own, after I was satisfied with the rest of the fic. I even told one of my betas, "I like the last line, just not as a last line," but I got to the point that I was tired of fiddling with it...

dragonflylady77 September 13 2008, 09:39:45 UTC

I really liked it. Buffy felt so useless at parenting and it must have stung a lot to see Spike get through to her sister when she couldn't..
I also can totally identify with the last line, I have days where I am not sure I can do this parenting thing... ;)

eowyn_315 September 13 2008, 15:41:57 UTC

Thanks! Glad you liked it! I think Buffy never realized how close Spike and Dawn got during that summer, and so it was interesting to explore how she'd feel about it. :)

kudagirl September 13 2008, 11:59:43 UTC

This is the sort of story I love. It fills in the blanks left by the writers. The emotions and problems that were never addressed that well. It was very true to the series and made perfect sense. Dawn got a raw deal a lot of the time. She was made out to be a brat, but she was an outsider who was trying to find her place in Buffy's life. All she wanted was to know she mattered.

eowyn_315 September 13 2008, 15:44:18 UTC

Thanks! You know, I could see this going two ways - it could be the start of an AU where Buffy realizes she needs to do better, and things change with Dawn. Or Buffy could take that uncertainty of the last scene and slip back into despair, and we'd end up right back at OMWF where she's detached and dancing herself to death.