madimpossibledreamer

sneaking this into the queue.  reading about joyce for Stardust Legacy, someone said that she's more plot device than character because Whedon didn't want to write the parents but thought it'd be weird if he didn't since we see a lot of Buffy's home life.
Insert obligatory warning that in this house we treat Whedon as thoroughly and utterly jossed (i.e. rendered completely irrelevant because of word of Whedon).
Ignoring the 'you could write an emancipated minor, you could write an adult, you could write a bunch of orphans in an orphanage' decisions that he could have easily made for that effect, but I suspect what he really wanted was a shorthand for 'normal family dynamics that lead to Normal Kid *insert vaguely ableist thoughts here*' and didn't want to deal with Consequences as those are, like, some of the least favorite things, seriously, he hates writing character arc and growth and yes I'm still bitter about him regressing Tony's character arc and having him and Pepper break up offscreen because he didn't like the ship...
So, ignore the fact that all choices have Consequences and you really should be trying to think about those as a writer and pay attention to your own continuity (and others', if you're playing in their playground). Ignore the fact that emancipation is a thing we never see in fiction so it'd be an interesting choice to take, or that orphans is a little cliche but you could've done interesting stuff with that.
There was a perfectly acceptable, perfectly interesting, perfectly easy story decision sitting in front of him and he didn't take it.
Buffy really is Giles' daughter.  The better, less cliche, more interesting route here is biologically, and he's a Watcher, and she knows at least a little about what he does, but then she gets Called and suddenly they're both having to deal with that.  From what we currently see of the Council, they *probably* wouldn't allow him to act as her Watcher, given how upset they are about him being unrelated and treating her like his daughter, but.
Maybe they keep him in line with threats on her life.  Maybe we work up the wetworks team much earlier.  Maybe we get some angst from Buffy about how he's stopped treating her like his daughter and become more distant once she got Called, only she finds out they've been threatening her life this whole time and he's been trying to protect her the best way he can.
The more cliche option involves fridging Joyce at the beginning of the series, so Giles adopts her.  I'm against this because fridging is so overdone (and offensive because it's overdone), but it's an option, too.
Now I'm kind of mad that I have a more creative imagination here, because actual parent Giles would've been awesome and I feel like we were robbed.

Obviously, no chapter.  A lot of stuff cropped up today, so I'm behind, sorry :(
( thoughts on wizards )

(also probably rip my phone D:< rrrgah)

Hear Me Out
So the idea of Slayer!Xander is really interesting to me.  Genderbend stuff as well, because I’m curious—would female!Xander get a break for some of the problematic things she does, and would male!Will get more of a bad rap?  Would Buff be male, or the second Slayer?  I feel like Andrew would be female & a lesbian and, yes, younger & following them around all the time (and kind of stumbled across a Slay or a vampire & had to be rescued and then kidnapped & debriefed for his own good.  Her own good. The one thing I’m not sure of is whether everyone should be genderflipped, because there are good arguments either way.  She’d still be super problematic, because all of her knowledge of how to act is from her parents (and the Harrises are just super problematic), but it'd be fascinating.

waaaait what did the coffee have the truth all along?

on star trek: the next generation (written at the time before I'd finished the season, though given that I haven't made it far into the second shows how interested I really am in the end)
My issues, thus far, are that the first few episodes were awful, Picard, thus far, is a bit too military/authoritarian for my taste, nobody listens to anyone aboard this ship, especially not anyone with information that might help, there are no shifts, which make a bigger ship than the original feel even smaller, which makes the bridge crew actually more important except Worf's gotten maybe fifteen minutes of screen time, 13 of which was getting beat up or a cold, Yar and Dr. Crusher have little to no personality most of which is cliches, and the bridge essentially looks like a large carpeted room that's had some chairs stuffed in.  And Q.  Q is annoying.  He's like Gabriel (supernatural) without a sense of humor.  If you have a sense of humor and can laugh at yourself, even the worst personalities can be fine.  If you don't?  You're insufferable and I hope you die you waste of space.  (well, maybe not that far, unless you're a powerful alien wanting to wipe entire species off the board with a single thought, in which case I take nothing back.)
(I am looking forward to the Borg.  There were a few good episodes.  I have the feeling it gets good with the Borg.)

i watch star trek for the theoretical discussions that follow.  a little bit the awesome people/actions on screen, but mostly the theoretical discussions.

the Prime Directive is essentially the World of Cardboard speech.

kirk is too sexy for his shirt

tos and aos kirk trade bodies.  mannerisms and instincts remain for the bodies, thoughts and memories and words/
sentences if not intonation remain the same.

I JUST REALIZED I SHIP MCKIRK BECAUSE THEY'RE BASICALLY FITZ AND XANDER.   EXCEPT HAIR COLOR SWAPPED.  UUHHH.