madimpossibledreamer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
madimpossibledreamer) wrote2022-03-29 02:53 pm
madimpossibledreamer) wrote2022-03-29 02:53 pm
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Random BtVS Dream
This particular dream was probably inspired by two things: writing more I Hope Tomorrow's a Better Day yesterday, plus a Kindaichi Case Files story.
Xander was Dresden's son, born soon after the Doom of Damocles was put in place. He knew that being his son would put a big target on Xander's back, too, so after discussing the matter with Bob, he decided the safest thing was to give him up, with a spell to try to keep him safe from being found. The illusion spell prevented anyone from looking too hard, like a 'don't notice me' spell.
And we actually see them hanging out over the summer. Sleep-brain was a little more definitive here than I will be, but I do think that it's one of the things that makes me think the writing them as friends is a bit off. Pretty much the only time you see them hanging out when it's not a crisis is at the Bronze, and even then it doesn't tend to stay not-crisis for long. And it's not even just the supernatural--they're all too busy having emotional crises at each other to actually show that they like each other in a not-romance way very often.
Actually, thinking back about it, it's a weakness of Whedon shows that actual friendship doesn't tend to be depicted very often. Things like remembering someone's favorite drink, or hanging out and being completely goofy (like me and my friends, bored in the library, divvying up the world between us), hanging out and doing homework together, being worried when someone's more quiet than normal. Like, they mention the Bollywood movies, but they don't refer to specifics (like, wasn't that wedding really funny, I liked that song), we don't see a hang out, etc. Ongoing things. So they all come off as a little self-absorbed because it doesn't seem like they're paying attention to each other enough, just worrying about their own problems.
If there's one thing I remember about being a teenager, it's that you can be a complete multitasker when it comes to worrying about your own problems as well as everybody else's. Or maybe that's just me. (I've only watched most of the episodes once and read a lot more about them in wiki, etc articles, which are dry and don't catch moment-by-moment, so I could be wrong about this, but this is the general overall impression I got. There are mostly just plot-moments, not character-moments. Setting up things for episodes. Like, Xander becoming a construction worker; you could have totally made that a character thing by showing him actually fixing a cabinet or something, like I recently did in a Slayer's Mad Whelp fic recently, and it doesn't need to be a long scene.)
Which, by the way, is one of the reasons I loved the 'fill-in-possibly-not-canon' comics--that one panel with Buffy acing the shooting game at the arcade as she talks without even looking at the screen and Xander looking dejected in the background is just...yessss chef's kiss more please. I need small scenes of them voluntarily hanging out at the arcade and each other's houses and Buffy's mom getting mad at Willow for using up the flour until she figures out it was for making cookies. Anyway, since they're hanging out in the library over the summer because it's too hot to be outside and several of them don't actually want to be home, Giles gave them one of those 'get to know each other' assignments. Xander whined a lot about doing it and how it was a waste of time; Giles noted that he did it anyway, and Xander says that's because he was bored. Giles, meanwhile, is trying to be the Stoic British Guy but he's really touched that they're actually choosing to hang out with him when it's not a crisis and going along with his goofy icebreaker stuff. They're also doing a collage for some reason. I'm not sure whether to keep this or just go 'this is weird dream-logic, the sort that is normal for most people and weird for me'. Would teenagers be willing to do collages because they're bored? Is this the kind of detail that's worth keeping? IDK.
Something in Xander's sheet serves as a clue, and everyone but Cordy keeps forgetting about what's written, because of the spell. Cordy remembers but is stubborn enough to keep looking.
(as a bonus, if you want to see what my 'just woke up from dream typing this up and going back to sleep' writing looks like, here it is)
xander as ddrsden's son
we don't see them sharinng info when they don't have to or hangig out outsid of crisis
one of the breaks, gils made an assignmet for them to sare fcts & stuf i they were comortable using the nuber o paages for collage, very excied tat they're sharing
commpulsion-cn't remember,, crdy's te ne wh otices & points it out
Xander was Dresden's son, born soon after the Doom of Damocles was put in place. He knew that being his son would put a big target on Xander's back, too, so after discussing the matter with Bob, he decided the safest thing was to give him up, with a spell to try to keep him safe from being found. The illusion spell prevented anyone from looking too hard, like a 'don't notice me' spell.
And we actually see them hanging out over the summer. Sleep-brain was a little more definitive here than I will be, but I do think that it's one of the things that makes me think the writing them as friends is a bit off. Pretty much the only time you see them hanging out when it's not a crisis is at the Bronze, and even then it doesn't tend to stay not-crisis for long. And it's not even just the supernatural--they're all too busy having emotional crises at each other to actually show that they like each other in a not-romance way very often.
Actually, thinking back about it, it's a weakness of Whedon shows that actual friendship doesn't tend to be depicted very often. Things like remembering someone's favorite drink, or hanging out and being completely goofy (like me and my friends, bored in the library, divvying up the world between us), hanging out and doing homework together, being worried when someone's more quiet than normal. Like, they mention the Bollywood movies, but they don't refer to specifics (like, wasn't that wedding really funny, I liked that song), we don't see a hang out, etc. Ongoing things. So they all come off as a little self-absorbed because it doesn't seem like they're paying attention to each other enough, just worrying about their own problems.
If there's one thing I remember about being a teenager, it's that you can be a complete multitasker when it comes to worrying about your own problems as well as everybody else's. Or maybe that's just me. (I've only watched most of the episodes once and read a lot more about them in wiki, etc articles, which are dry and don't catch moment-by-moment, so I could be wrong about this, but this is the general overall impression I got. There are mostly just plot-moments, not character-moments. Setting up things for episodes. Like, Xander becoming a construction worker; you could have totally made that a character thing by showing him actually fixing a cabinet or something, like I recently did in a Slayer's Mad Whelp fic recently, and it doesn't need to be a long scene.)
Which, by the way, is one of the reasons I loved the 'fill-in-possibly-not-canon' comics--that one panel with Buffy acing the shooting game at the arcade as she talks without even looking at the screen and Xander looking dejected in the background is just...yessss chef's kiss more please. I need small scenes of them voluntarily hanging out at the arcade and each other's houses and Buffy's mom getting mad at Willow for using up the flour until she figures out it was for making cookies. Anyway, since they're hanging out in the library over the summer because it's too hot to be outside and several of them don't actually want to be home, Giles gave them one of those 'get to know each other' assignments. Xander whined a lot about doing it and how it was a waste of time; Giles noted that he did it anyway, and Xander says that's because he was bored. Giles, meanwhile, is trying to be the Stoic British Guy but he's really touched that they're actually choosing to hang out with him when it's not a crisis and going along with his goofy icebreaker stuff. They're also doing a collage for some reason. I'm not sure whether to keep this or just go 'this is weird dream-logic, the sort that is normal for most people and weird for me'. Would teenagers be willing to do collages because they're bored? Is this the kind of detail that's worth keeping? IDK.
Something in Xander's sheet serves as a clue, and everyone but Cordy keeps forgetting about what's written, because of the spell. Cordy remembers but is stubborn enough to keep looking.
(as a bonus, if you want to see what my 'just woke up from dream typing this up and going back to sleep' writing looks like, here it is)
xander as ddrsden's son
we don't see them sharinng info when they don't have to or hangig out outsid of crisis
one of the breaks, gils made an assignmet for them to sare fcts & stuf i they were comortable using the nuber o paages for collage, very excied tat they're sharing
commpulsion-cn't remember,, crdy's te ne wh otices & points it out