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I'm feeling very productive right now, but it's just dawned on me that to the outward eye, it probably doesn't seem that way; the Secretary stand alone fic and two short chapter of Running Scared and that's it.
Whereas, behind the scenes,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wesleysgirl and I have already written over 40,000 words of our Giles/Ethan fic and I, no exaggeration, have made a dozen attempts to write a 'why not more Giles/Ethan fic?' post and given up in despair each time for various reasons.
The fic is just knocking my socks off though. I'm getting the same buzz about it that I did when I wrote Act of Nature with Wesleysgirl; so many of those tags that leave you so worked up you can barely wait for the next one. Guh. And although there's a spiffy plot, the real story is the two of them and as I've never written (Snowbound/Sunblind apart) a long G/E this is giving me a chance to explore the way the two of them are with each other and it's fascinating.
I'm writing Giles, not Ethan, but the way we write means I get to peek inside Ethan's head a little too, and WG gets to do the same with Giles. Besides Giles, Ethan's someone I've paired with Buffy, Spike, Wesley, Willow and written, not in a pairing sense, with Lilah. But really, even the Buffy and Wesley ones had Giles in the forefront of the story and there's a very real feeling to my mind that although Giles goes nicely with a lot of people (Wesley, Spike, Xander, Willow, Anya, Oz, Buffy, Faith...many more) Ethan belongs to Giles.
When I wrote an essay about the Giles/Spike pairing , I put it this way:
It’s a crowded relationship, you see. Standing behind Giles with a wistful, mocking smile is Ethan, standing behind Spike, frowning with disapproval, is Angel – standing between them is Buffy, loved by both and a barrier because of that; but this pairing isn’t a faded copy, a retread or necessarily doomed; it’s a second chance for both of them.
It's not just me; look at most Ethan fics where he's not ostensibly paired with Giles, and Giles is there; he's the reason, the driving force behind so much of what Ethan does, no matter whom he's with. Not all of them, no. I'm trying not to make sweeping statements here. But mostly. It's as if Ethan uses people to recreate what he had with Giles, or steal someone from Giles whom he believes Giles values. Often, it seems to me, it's Xander and that's a three-way that really has so much potential in it that's it's just too tempting not to write.
Ethan makes things easy for the slash writer. He is (look, I really can't be bothered to keep inserting caveats; when I assert something, I'm not saying it's how it is and that's that, I'm saying it's how I perceive it; feel utterly, absolutely free to disagree and try and persuade me I have rocks in my head) presented as being gay and he can hand out phone numbers to waitresses all he wants without changing my mind on that. Bi? Maybe. Focused completely on Giles? You bet. So if he is, and he and Giles had a thing, then Giles, without you having to lift a finger, gets to slip, sweet as you like, from the man who had three love interests in canon, all female, to someone a little more ambiguous sexually, because of his assocation with Ethan in the past and that can carry over to other pairings.
Think about it; you want to slash Giles with Xander or Oz maybe. Fine. Nifty idea. Done it myself.But Xander and Oz, especially Oz, are not, in canon, gay, and without Ethan you've got to convincingly present/persuade your reader to suspend belief that not one, but two characters as/are 'gay, my goodness, what a surprise, who'd have thought it.' And, in the case of Xander and Oz, there's a not inconsiderable :;cough::jailbait:;cough:: age difference/abuse of authority issue to get over too, unless you set it late on or post Chosen.
Same goes for Buffy, Willow, Anya... not to mention the fact that all of them have existing canonical love interests most of the time.
Not Ethan. He's just got Giles.
But he doesn't get paired with Giles all that much.
I can think of some reasons and it'd be interesting to discuss them. It's not, I think, that Ethan was only around for four episodes. He's one of those characters who had such a deep impact on a leading character that he stands out. And he's one character who has inspired a weaving of fanon that's wrapped around him like a blanket, as if to make up for the way canon left him nakedly shivering when it came to a background or an ending.
It might be that he's human. But so is Wesley, so is Xander... and Ethan is a magic user after all.
It might be that Giles hates him; he's evil. Umm. Yes. Doesn't stop Giles getting paired very nicely with a pre-soul Spike does it? Even though that doesn't happen enough either. And does Giles often get slammed out of his skull and giggling/wistful/belligerent with his enemies? There's a very real sense that, like Spike, Ethan pretty much gets away with anything because he and Giles go back. Way back, to quote the man himself.
I think, and I'll duck as needed, that it's because Giles and Ethan are a very real pairing. Too real. There's not much glamour about them; they're two men in late middle-age, a little tired, a little wrinkled, a little lost. Ethan in particular has a slightly seedy air to him, as if the dark magics have seeped into his bones and tarnished him a little.
I described him once,as seen through Spike's eyes, ( in Drunk and Disorderly ) and I loved this so much I'm sure I'd have been told to delete it on a writing course,
The man leading the way was confident and assured, with sparkling, wicked eyes, but slightly worn around the edges, like a designer shirt picked up at a jumble sale with a button missing, a curling collar.
I'm not sure most people want that. They'll pair Giles with a young lad or girl thirty years younger who'd have eyebrows raising (I mean; come on - at 17 I'd have fallen for Giles in a heartbeat but the thought of the reaction I'd have got if I'd introduced him as my boyfriend? Wouldn't have gone down well), but a man his own age? Not so much. And I include me in that. I've written very little G/E.
Part of it for me is that I don't have much interest in writing them as youngsters and that chops off a whole lot of avenues. Part is that it didn't do much for me because although I adore Ethan as a character I don't fancy him whereas Xander and Wesley and Spike I do, and Giles I definitely do, so pair him with them and it's double gravy.
But you can't read G/E fic (and yes, I'm mostly thinking about Magpie and Wolfling's epic, wonderful 'Of Old Mystics' here) without being struck by how right the two of them are together, how they complete each other, how they're linked in a way that's lasted, that's proven itself. Thirty years and they still spark and snark and spar and absolutely dominate the scene when they're in it.
It's an enduring, passionate, fascinating and, yes, real relationship. It won't ever be my OTP; don't really have them so much now; more a shortlist of pairings that're the equivalent of bulletproof kinks, but it's on that list now, and I don't think it'll leave.
So; if you slash Giles, but not with Ethan; tell me why; I'm curious :-)
Whereas, behind the scenes,
wesleysgirl and I have already written over 40,000 words of our Giles/Ethan fic and I, no exaggeration, have made a dozen attempts to write a 'why not more Giles/Ethan fic?' post and given up in despair each time for various reasons.The fic is just knocking my socks off though. I'm getting the same buzz about it that I did when I wrote Act of Nature with Wesleysgirl; so many of those tags that leave you so worked up you can barely wait for the next one. Guh. And although there's a spiffy plot, the real story is the two of them and as I've never written (Snowbound/Sunblind apart) a long G/E this is giving me a chance to explore the way the two of them are with each other and it's fascinating.
I'm writing Giles, not Ethan, but the way we write means I get to peek inside Ethan's head a little too, and WG gets to do the same with Giles. Besides Giles, Ethan's someone I've paired with Buffy, Spike, Wesley, Willow and written, not in a pairing sense, with Lilah. But really, even the Buffy and Wesley ones had Giles in the forefront of the story and there's a very real feeling to my mind that although Giles goes nicely with a lot of people (Wesley, Spike, Xander, Willow, Anya, Oz, Buffy, Faith...many more) Ethan belongs to Giles.
When I wrote an essay about the Giles/Spike pairing , I put it this way:
It’s a crowded relationship, you see. Standing behind Giles with a wistful, mocking smile is Ethan, standing behind Spike, frowning with disapproval, is Angel – standing between them is Buffy, loved by both and a barrier because of that; but this pairing isn’t a faded copy, a retread or necessarily doomed; it’s a second chance for both of them.
It's not just me; look at most Ethan fics where he's not ostensibly paired with Giles, and Giles is there; he's the reason, the driving force behind so much of what Ethan does, no matter whom he's with. Not all of them, no. I'm trying not to make sweeping statements here. But mostly. It's as if Ethan uses people to recreate what he had with Giles, or steal someone from Giles whom he believes Giles values. Often, it seems to me, it's Xander and that's a three-way that really has so much potential in it that's it's just too tempting not to write.
Ethan makes things easy for the slash writer. He is (look, I really can't be bothered to keep inserting caveats; when I assert something, I'm not saying it's how it is and that's that, I'm saying it's how I perceive it; feel utterly, absolutely free to disagree and try and persuade me I have rocks in my head) presented as being gay and he can hand out phone numbers to waitresses all he wants without changing my mind on that. Bi? Maybe. Focused completely on Giles? You bet. So if he is, and he and Giles had a thing, then Giles, without you having to lift a finger, gets to slip, sweet as you like, from the man who had three love interests in canon, all female, to someone a little more ambiguous sexually, because of his assocation with Ethan in the past and that can carry over to other pairings.
Think about it; you want to slash Giles with Xander or Oz maybe. Fine. Nifty idea. Done it myself.But Xander and Oz, especially Oz, are not, in canon, gay, and without Ethan you've got to convincingly present/persuade your reader to suspend belief that not one, but two characters as/are 'gay, my goodness, what a surprise, who'd have thought it.' And, in the case of Xander and Oz, there's a not inconsiderable :;cough::jailbait:;cough:: age difference/abuse of authority issue to get over too, unless you set it late on or post Chosen.
Same goes for Buffy, Willow, Anya... not to mention the fact that all of them have existing canonical love interests most of the time.
Not Ethan. He's just got Giles.
But he doesn't get paired with Giles all that much.
I can think of some reasons and it'd be interesting to discuss them. It's not, I think, that Ethan was only around for four episodes. He's one of those characters who had such a deep impact on a leading character that he stands out. And he's one character who has inspired a weaving of fanon that's wrapped around him like a blanket, as if to make up for the way canon left him nakedly shivering when it came to a background or an ending.
It might be that he's human. But so is Wesley, so is Xander... and Ethan is a magic user after all.
It might be that Giles hates him; he's evil. Umm. Yes. Doesn't stop Giles getting paired very nicely with a pre-soul Spike does it? Even though that doesn't happen enough either. And does Giles often get slammed out of his skull and giggling/wistful/belligerent with his enemies? There's a very real sense that, like Spike, Ethan pretty much gets away with anything because he and Giles go back. Way back, to quote the man himself.
I think, and I'll duck as needed, that it's because Giles and Ethan are a very real pairing. Too real. There's not much glamour about them; they're two men in late middle-age, a little tired, a little wrinkled, a little lost. Ethan in particular has a slightly seedy air to him, as if the dark magics have seeped into his bones and tarnished him a little.
I described him once,as seen through Spike's eyes, ( in Drunk and Disorderly ) and I loved this so much I'm sure I'd have been told to delete it on a writing course,
The man leading the way was confident and assured, with sparkling, wicked eyes, but slightly worn around the edges, like a designer shirt picked up at a jumble sale with a button missing, a curling collar.
I'm not sure most people want that. They'll pair Giles with a young lad or girl thirty years younger who'd have eyebrows raising (I mean; come on - at 17 I'd have fallen for Giles in a heartbeat but the thought of the reaction I'd have got if I'd introduced him as my boyfriend? Wouldn't have gone down well), but a man his own age? Not so much. And I include me in that. I've written very little G/E.
Part of it for me is that I don't have much interest in writing them as youngsters and that chops off a whole lot of avenues. Part is that it didn't do much for me because although I adore Ethan as a character I don't fancy him whereas Xander and Wesley and Spike I do, and Giles I definitely do, so pair him with them and it's double gravy.
But you can't read G/E fic (and yes, I'm mostly thinking about Magpie and Wolfling's epic, wonderful 'Of Old Mystics' here) without being struck by how right the two of them are together, how they complete each other, how they're linked in a way that's lasted, that's proven itself. Thirty years and they still spark and snark and spar and absolutely dominate the scene when they're in it.
It's an enduring, passionate, fascinating and, yes, real relationship. It won't ever be my OTP; don't really have them so much now; more a shortlist of pairings that're the equivalent of bulletproof kinks, but it's on that list now, and I don't think it'll leave.
So; if you slash Giles, but not with Ethan; tell me why; I'm curious :-)