Steps series DVD commentary as requested
Jan. 22nd, 2004 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stakebait As we open, Wesley is walking into the library. I had no real idea what was going to happen at this point. I approve deeply of outlines, but I almost never use them. All I knew was that I was gonna do Buffy/Wesley for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
minim_calibre, that Buffy was working at the new school and that Wesley, post leaving Angel at the hotel, was at a good "done" moment, where all debts were as square as they could be, all bets were off, and there was nothing keeping him in LA any more.
Architectural musings establish that just because Wesley's back in Sunnydale doesn't mean he's lost his edge, or his snark. Re-entering the library is an instant compare/contrast with the last time he came to Sunnydale.
Meeting Buffy for the first time and being shocked both answered the question of had he kept up with events in Sunnydale (hell, no) and established the theme that this relationship is an accident, a collision even. There is neither intent nor grand destiny here. It also let me throw the line on where things stand with Angel, what the hell Buffy was doing there (at that point not yet established in canon), and let Wes wax bitter and Buffy wax snarky. It's also the first hint of collusion between them, since neither of them can let Wood in on the real story.
Emails have been a weakness of mine ever since the RPG from hell. Something about the format -- the distance, the lack of seeing a face or hearing a voice -- makes people say more than they would face to face. The email sparring interlude takes them to the next level far more concisely than a bunch of inconclusive meetings saying not much, which is what would happen in real life.
Wesley at this point has a fetish for not owing anyone anything. That's what drives him towards Buffy, an itchy sense of indebtedness for understanding him.
Buffy's conversation with the girl is supposed to show her going outside the usual rules to trust kids and help them get control of their own lives, considering what she went through as a teen. It's not much like what she did on the show, but it was the best extrapolation I could come up with before the canon happened. It's based on me helping a friend pay for an abortion in high school, and originally I was going to say so, but then I decided I the abortion debate was a distraction from the point of the story so I took the specifics out. It's also meant to contrast with how Wes was with Buffy back in the day.
Underlining that is that he's in her office, on her turf, even though he's the one with information. Her flinch at "this isn't about you" is from remembering Angelus saying the same thing. Their mutual bitterness about Angel is their first real bonding moment, and her saying Thank you is meant to show the ways that she's changed as a result of season six.
Diary riff. Because ... it seemed like a good idea at the time. A place to hang more summary of Wesley's changing mental state, and internal architecture to match the external at the start of the story. Plus it's an explanation for why Wesley would need confession now when he'd never been inclined that way before -- his other outlets no longer work.
Graveyard conversation -- a Buffy standby, a way to break up the talkiness with action, and a chance for her to see the changes in Wes. Bonding moment number two. And a chance to skip the exposition that the reader already knows while still making it clear that Buffy didn't.
Why are they in a hotel room line duly thrown. Because being alone in a hotel room with the lurking bed monster raises the question of sex, even if the answer is no.
Alcohol, an oldie but a goodie. If Buffy'll drink with Spike, I figure she'll drink with Wes. And bonding moment number three, over the odd coincidences of their history. The accident motif resurfaces.
It's when Wes tells Buffy not to forgive him that she actually decides to sleep with him, because that resemblance between him and her confession to Tara goes much deeper than coincidence. She realizes what he wants from her because she's been there. And she can be for him both roles at once: Tara and Spike, the safe target that doesn't count. Buffy's enough of a helper to be happy to put her brokenness, which seemed to have no point, into the service of something.
The exchange about "what makes you think you're staying" "I'm stronger" sets the tone for their future intimacy: Him trying to hurt her, as he did Lilah, out of a sort of externalized self-loathing, and being relieved when she shows him he hasn't succeeded.
The sex scene in the library is about letting Wes relax into not having to be strong for once, and demonstrating both his crush on Angel and Buffy's much darker, greyer, and more complicated view of love and sex post-Spike, as well as her developing empathy. She's willing to talk dirty to Wes, to be there in the dark with him, but only after he's shown some compassion and concern for her by his apology. And she's willing to share her Angel memories. Implicitly, willing to share Angel, to acknowledge Wesley has a claim there too as she never did with Faith. Plus I thought it was hot.
And it gave me the perfect lead in to crazy Spike, with his jealousy and pain and cryptic warnings, and to the implication that Spike and Angel had had a thing of their own, once upon a time. Crazy Spike is fun to write. Like Dru, it's a matter of allusions and slanted meanings and saying poetic things that sane people would censor so as not to look like a fool. Plus Buffy and Wes needed an outside observer, someone to bring them up short and make them see themselves together. Buffy putting her hand into Wesley's is a reflection of that.
minim_calibre, that Buffy was working at the new school and that Wesley, post leaving Angel at the hotel, was at a good "done" moment, where all debts were as square as they could be, all bets were off, and there was nothing keeping him in LA any more.Architectural musings establish that just because Wesley's back in Sunnydale doesn't mean he's lost his edge, or his snark. Re-entering the library is an instant compare/contrast with the last time he came to Sunnydale.
Meeting Buffy for the first time and being shocked both answered the question of had he kept up with events in Sunnydale (hell, no) and established the theme that this relationship is an accident, a collision even. There is neither intent nor grand destiny here. It also let me throw the line on where things stand with Angel, what the hell Buffy was doing there (at that point not yet established in canon), and let Wes wax bitter and Buffy wax snarky. It's also the first hint of collusion between them, since neither of them can let Wood in on the real story.
Emails have been a weakness of mine ever since the RPG from hell. Something about the format -- the distance, the lack of seeing a face or hearing a voice -- makes people say more than they would face to face. The email sparring interlude takes them to the next level far more concisely than a bunch of inconclusive meetings saying not much, which is what would happen in real life.
Wesley at this point has a fetish for not owing anyone anything. That's what drives him towards Buffy, an itchy sense of indebtedness for understanding him.
Buffy's conversation with the girl is supposed to show her going outside the usual rules to trust kids and help them get control of their own lives, considering what she went through as a teen. It's not much like what she did on the show, but it was the best extrapolation I could come up with before the canon happened. It's based on me helping a friend pay for an abortion in high school, and originally I was going to say so, but then I decided I the abortion debate was a distraction from the point of the story so I took the specifics out. It's also meant to contrast with how Wes was with Buffy back in the day.
Underlining that is that he's in her office, on her turf, even though he's the one with information. Her flinch at "this isn't about you" is from remembering Angelus saying the same thing. Their mutual bitterness about Angel is their first real bonding moment, and her saying Thank you is meant to show the ways that she's changed as a result of season six.
Diary riff. Because ... it seemed like a good idea at the time. A place to hang more summary of Wesley's changing mental state, and internal architecture to match the external at the start of the story. Plus it's an explanation for why Wesley would need confession now when he'd never been inclined that way before -- his other outlets no longer work.
Graveyard conversation -- a Buffy standby, a way to break up the talkiness with action, and a chance for her to see the changes in Wes. Bonding moment number two. And a chance to skip the exposition that the reader already knows while still making it clear that Buffy didn't.
Why are they in a hotel room line duly thrown. Because being alone in a hotel room with the lurking bed monster raises the question of sex, even if the answer is no.
Alcohol, an oldie but a goodie. If Buffy'll drink with Spike, I figure she'll drink with Wes. And bonding moment number three, over the odd coincidences of their history. The accident motif resurfaces.
It's when Wes tells Buffy not to forgive him that she actually decides to sleep with him, because that resemblance between him and her confession to Tara goes much deeper than coincidence. She realizes what he wants from her because she's been there. And she can be for him both roles at once: Tara and Spike, the safe target that doesn't count. Buffy's enough of a helper to be happy to put her brokenness, which seemed to have no point, into the service of something.
The exchange about "what makes you think you're staying" "I'm stronger" sets the tone for their future intimacy: Him trying to hurt her, as he did Lilah, out of a sort of externalized self-loathing, and being relieved when she shows him he hasn't succeeded.
The sex scene in the library is about letting Wes relax into not having to be strong for once, and demonstrating both his crush on Angel and Buffy's much darker, greyer, and more complicated view of love and sex post-Spike, as well as her developing empathy. She's willing to talk dirty to Wes, to be there in the dark with him, but only after he's shown some compassion and concern for her by his apology. And she's willing to share her Angel memories. Implicitly, willing to share Angel, to acknowledge Wesley has a claim there too as she never did with Faith. Plus I thought it was hot.
And it gave me the perfect lead in to crazy Spike, with his jealousy and pain and cryptic warnings, and to the implication that Spike and Angel had had a thing of their own, once upon a time. Crazy Spike is fun to write. Like Dru, it's a matter of allusions and slanted meanings and saying poetic things that sane people would censor so as not to look like a fool. Plus Buffy and Wes needed an outside observer, someone to bring them up short and make them see themselves together. Buffy putting her hand into Wesley's is a reflection of that.
