Whee, it's a Friday! The turbulent waters here have smoothed over, chocolate cheesecake was served in the break room for breakfast, and one of my coworkers gave me a Blue Ribbon to hang on my tackboard. *hums happily* Now, if my tax refund would just arrive...
In the meantime, here's a meme I spotted at calliopes_pen. There are a *lot* of fandoms I'm interested in, as y'all should already know, and I'm looking for an excuse to waste time today, so please, do comment. =)
1. Comment with any ship [or character] from a fandom that you know I like, or at least have some knowledge about.
2. I will ramble for about 100 words (I may go over a bit) about the aforementioned ship. This may be incoherent gushing or exclamations of disgust, depending on what it is.
3. Put this on your LJ, if you are so inclined.
In the meantime, here's a meme I spotted at calliopes_pen. There are a *lot* of fandoms I'm interested in, as y'all should already know, and I'm looking for an excuse to waste time today, so please, do comment. =)
1. Comment with any ship [or character] from a fandom that you know I like, or at least have some knowledge about.
2. I will ramble for about 100 words (I may go over a bit) about the aforementioned ship. This may be incoherent gushing or exclamations of disgust, depending on what it is.
3. Put this on your LJ, if you are so inclined.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-14 01:33 pm (UTC)Illyria and Wesley- that sholud keep you busy.
Illyria & Wesley!!
Date: 2006-04-14 02:55 pm (UTC)You hear me gush about this all the time, why make me repeat myself? =)
Seriously, though. I adore Wesley for many and varied reasons, few of which have to do with his physical attractiveness. Many of them overlap with my reasons for adoring Daniel Jackson of Stargate: SG-1, namely his intelligence, his bookish "primary" occupation, his essential stubborn, determined nature (which, admittedly, is pretty hidden under awkward dross when he first shows up), his incredible growth of character over the entirety of his arc...
Ahem. Anyway. Wesley is also, unlike Daniel, a character who, when pushed to extremes, finally broke. There is no happy ending for him after Fred's death. This makes me want to mend him, to continue his arc and slowly bring him back into a functional state of contentment with life (like Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly, pre-movie, whose world went all to ashes in Serenity Valley but eventually rebuilt himself a family and a home). Barring a pure angst-fic like "The Day After the Apocalypse", I like the idea of Wesley slowly rediscovering life and purpose again, and was mightly aggrieved that the show killed him off instead of letting that happen.
Illyria is, in many ways, responsible for his breaking in the first place. She wears the face of the woman he'd been obsessed with for the better part of three years; her arrival is what killed Fred, just after Wesley had finally, finally attained her. And yet, though her nature is "evil" by modern standards, she's really just a product of her environment, and is not actually guilty of murdering Fred; Knox is the one responsible, and Wesley took care of him during the early phases of his near-insanity after Illyria's awakening. He can't really blame her. But he can't let go of her, either, especially once Illyria reveals she retains many of Fred's memories, and that Fred's humanity is slowly rubbing off on her, making her more and more human-like as time passes.
She's interesting enough in her own right, with all that history behind her, her fish-out-of-water status, and all the inherent difficulties of her adjustment to this world and her adoption of Wesley as her guide/mentor. I think, honestly, that she might be OK without him provided she finds another mentor; Fred's feelings for Wesley weren't nearly as deep or long-lasting as Wesley's for Fred, and human emotions are pretty alien to Illyria still anyway, so if you accept the last episode of Angel as canon then I can see her getting over her grief fairly easily and moving on. (I have, in fact, written her that way more than once).
If Wesley were to survive, though-- in an AU or crossover, obviously-- then whatever healing he does must still include Illyria in his life, since he's completely unable to let go of her in any form. As the years pass, once Fred fades a bit from his memory-- for, after all, she was there for such a small fraction of his total life and they had barely any time together as a couple-- I can definitely see his attachment to Illyria deepening again into something romantic. (Or, you know, if you want to go the unhealthy angsty route, I can also see him getting involved with her sexually in a self-hating way, but I don't like to go there). The question is, would she welcome it, and would it last? Difficult to say. Many possibilities, though.
So in summary, I guess that's what I like most about Illyria and Wesley together: the sheer potential that was squelched prematurely by the show.
Re: Illyria & Wesley!!
Date: 2006-04-14 03:04 pm (UTC)Because after the cruel joke at first I thought I would let you have a public forum to wax eloquent on your favorite ship.=)!
Re: Illyria & Wesley!!
Date: 2006-04-14 03:32 pm (UTC)Please. They're not my favorite ship, just one of the top ten. Or have you forgotten last week's
Re: Illyria & Wesley!!
Date: 2006-04-14 05:32 pm (UTC)