your brother got house's "voice" perfectly very good.

I've been rereading this series for the umpteenth time, and I just got the "The Wicker Man" reference. (The original, with the Equalizer, not the crappy American remake with Nicolas Cage.)

Wonderful.

This fic is made of awesome.

hahaha!
Ooo! I liked that.
Very funny.
Very Cuddy *rolls her eyes*
Your House was pretty good :-D
Patch Adams makes him kick puppies *Snickers*

Very nice.

Dawn's group, does it by chance include a man who thinks he's "Cupid" and work in a bar, and is perhaps atoning for some questionable hook ups?

Okay. Rereading what I wrote, I realize that I came off a little too mean than I'd intended to. I was in a bad mood that day, and the story didn't help. Let me explain...

I've always felt that one of the strengths of BtVS was the characterization, and how three dimensional they were. They all had numerous strengths, but also many flaws: Buffy tended to be very self-absorbed and too motivated by her heart (the latter was also a strength of hers, however), Giles was often too distant emotionally, Willow was lacking in self-confidence and to often tended to define herself by the way others see her, Xander could be jealous and envious, allowing that jealousy to blind him, and so on. As a result, one of my pet peeves, a major hang-up of mine, is when writers overly-emphasize flaws, real or perceived, in one character, while ignoring the flaws in another character. Which is what was happening here. It kinda touched a nerve, and that compounded on top of a bad day set me off. I apologize for the overtly curt review. The flaws in the story are still an issue for me, but I probably should have been more diplomatic about it.

I'd give this story a 0 if I could. Unfortunately, TTH only allows a 1 at the lowest, so that'll have to do.

While it's fairly well written, the characterization of the Buffy characters is so far off from what was seen in the show that I won't even consider it a story, just a masturbatory exercise in glorifying a favored character by painting the others in a bad light.

The attempt to equate the casting of a protective spell with the tampering of someone's memory is laughably pathetic. If the condemnation of the spell is supposed to be that Willow cast it without Xander's knowledge, well guess what. Buffy canon is that protective spells only work if the person they are cast on ISN'T aware of them. See the episode 'Gingerbread' for example, where Willow states that fact very clearly.

Furthermore, Willow would be the LAST person to claim Xander couldn't protect himself. She'd seen him in battle more than anyone else, including Buffy, (between seasons 2-3. and between seasons 5-6, for example), and would never doubt his capacity to take care of himself, especially after the events of 'Grave', and Xander standing up to her in her darkest moment. Such comments are more characteristic of some the things said by Buffy in her more thoughtless moments.

And while Buffy has always been fairly self-absorbed, she was never anywhere near as self-absorbed as portrayed in this work. She had always put Dawn before anything else in seasons 5-7. Furthermore, Willow was always portrayed as the least self-absorbed of any of the Scoobies, and the most sympathetic to the needs of others. Need I remind anyone that Willow was the FIRST one to accept Angel and Spike into the Scoobies, despite their murderous pasts? And that Xander was always so pissy over Buffy's relationship with Angel? Not so much because Angel was a vampire, but because Buffy liked Angel instead of him.

Like Jason Barnett, who reviewed earlier I'm sick of the Scoobies knocking on Willow's magic in fan fiction. Every one of them would be dead a hundred times over if it wasn't for her magic. In all these so-called stories, what really happens is that they basically treat Willow and her magic as a weapon to save their asses when they need it, and then disregard her and her powers when they don't. THAT is self-centered. And it says more about the writer than the character.

And of course the attempt to practically sanctify Xander brought to mind something that Xander said on 'Something Blue':

"Something about Willow and her griefy-poor-me mood swings. So, so tired of it."

His EXACT words, taken from the DVD. Now, Oz had been gone less than a month at that point, yet Xander was showing that level of insensitivity and self-absorption. This too was at a time when he at least had someone in his life (in the form of Anya). And unlike this little story, 'Something Blue' is very much canon.

Let's not forget his "Kick his ass" comment about Angel, misrepresenting what Willow had said. A lie, born out of Xander's jealousy over Buffy's relationship with Angel, that was probably the main factor which contributed to Buffy's running off for three months afterwards.

Xander tends to be just as self-absorbed as Buffy, so his condemnation of Buffy and Willow's supposed self-absorption is laughably hypocritical.

There is so much wrong with this 'story' I cannot even begin to list them all, and I won't even try. I'll let what I've already said speak for me.

You have strong feelings on this topic. I suggest you explore them in your own writing, and I wish you luck in that.

Hmm. Bit of X/D shipiness? Daddy like.

Great story :)

First of all, The Patch Adams vid...amazing! I think you did a fantastic job with the entire fic! I loved it so very much...are Dawn and Xander gunna get together in the next one? (please?)

Cheers,
MJ

This was very amusing, and poor Xander. *hugs the Xan-man*

awesome work, i am excited for more

Very good story...ok there were one or two little bits were I thought 'House wouldn't say that' but otherwise great!. Liked the Dawn/Xander thing always thought there was more to their relationship than just friendship!

All the best,
Dave T.