![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I watched "The Wish" with a friend today, and for some reason that left me with the desire to reread Annakovsky's story "Back Before Dawn." Well, I guess the connection is obvious enough: that story also deals with a wishverse, only it plays with the very interesting premise that canon S5, S6 and S7 are actually a wishverse, and that there was an original timeline that didn't have Dawn in it. I love the story.
While I was at Annkovsky's website anyway, I looked to see what else was there that I haven't read yet. I ended up reading a short story, "Morituri Te Salutamus": Nancy's thoughts on being cannon fodder. Remember Nancy, from the Wishverse? So, that was pretty cool.
And that got me thinking about stories about very minor characters. Characters who only ever show up once. They fascinate me, on some level. I tried my hand at it once; I wrote "On the Way to Tara's Funeral" from the POV of Sheila, Willow's mom.
Over the past couple years I've found and enjoyed a few other stories that centre on very minor characters.
"Company in Hell" by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
deborahmm is told from Spike's POV, but the medium who was killed in "Hellbound" plays a major role.
"Bit Parts" by Mint Witch is about that goth chick Spike brought to Xander and Anya's non-wedding.
"Foreign Devils" by Indri tells the story of the Chinese Slayer.
So this leaves me wondering: what else is out there? Have you read a good story, or written one, about a character who only ever shows up in one episode and isn't even the focus of that episode?
***
On a mostly-unrelated note: looking up "Bit Parts" reminded me of the archive All About Spike, where the version I've linked to is housed. I haven't gone browsing there for a while (and I should—I've still read only a small fraction of what's there) but when I first joined fandom, that was where I went for all my reading. I was one of those people who watched the series on DVD once it was all over, but there was a bit of a lag because I finished watching S5 before S6 came out on DVD. At that point I realized I was craving stories about Spike, and happily I found my way straight to that archive. One thing that I really appreciated about it at the time was it was possible to search for stories from a particular place on the canon timeline—so I was able to find stories that wouldn't spoil me, so I could start reading before I finished watching.
I'm a little sad that the archivist stopped updating it about the same time I started writing in the Buffyverse. When I first started writing, I had this sort of idea in the back of my head, "Once I can get archived on All About Spike, I'll know I've really made it!" Heh. Plus, it seemed like this fantastic one-stop-shop for all my Spike-related needs. But I'm totally sympathetic to her not wanting to continue putting in what must have been a huge amount of work to keep updating it, and I'm grateful that she built it up to the point that she did and has kept it online since then. So, not complaining. Just ... sad.
While I was at Annkovsky's website anyway, I looked to see what else was there that I haven't read yet. I ended up reading a short story, "Morituri Te Salutamus": Nancy's thoughts on being cannon fodder. Remember Nancy, from the Wishverse? So, that was pretty cool.
And that got me thinking about stories about very minor characters. Characters who only ever show up once. They fascinate me, on some level. I tried my hand at it once; I wrote "On the Way to Tara's Funeral" from the POV of Sheila, Willow's mom.
Over the past couple years I've found and enjoyed a few other stories that centre on very minor characters.
"Company in Hell" by
deborahmm is told from Spike's POV, but the medium who was killed in "Hellbound" plays a major role."Bit Parts" by Mint Witch is about that goth chick Spike brought to Xander and Anya's non-wedding.
"Foreign Devils" by Indri tells the story of the Chinese Slayer.
So this leaves me wondering: what else is out there? Have you read a good story, or written one, about a character who only ever shows up in one episode and isn't even the focus of that episode?
***
On a mostly-unrelated note: looking up "Bit Parts" reminded me of the archive All About Spike, where the version I've linked to is housed. I haven't gone browsing there for a while (and I should—I've still read only a small fraction of what's there) but when I first joined fandom, that was where I went for all my reading. I was one of those people who watched the series on DVD once it was all over, but there was a bit of a lag because I finished watching S5 before S6 came out on DVD. At that point I realized I was craving stories about Spike, and happily I found my way straight to that archive. One thing that I really appreciated about it at the time was it was possible to search for stories from a particular place on the canon timeline—so I was able to find stories that wouldn't spoil me, so I could start reading before I finished watching.
I'm a little sad that the archivist stopped updating it about the same time I started writing in the Buffyverse. When I first started writing, I had this sort of idea in the back of my head, "Once I can get archived on All About Spike, I'll know I've really made it!" Heh. Plus, it seemed like this fantastic one-stop-shop for all my Spike-related needs. But I'm totally sympathetic to her not wanting to continue putting in what must have been a huge amount of work to keep updating it, and I'm grateful that she built it up to the point that she did and has kept it online since then. So, not complaining. Just ... sad.
