Thursday, 5 November 2015

Laine Yeager 14865282 Assignment 2

FAN FICTION

When Buffy arrived home from the Initiative Headquarters she quickly pulled me aside and started explaining how Walsh tried to kill her only moments earlier.

I’m Buffy’s friend Willow, were a team wherever we go and whoever we fight. She had a boyfriend called Riley but she called it quits after she had the idea that Riley might have helped in the planning of Buffy’s death. Professor Walsh is a very evil and manipulative woman. Surprisingly Buffy wasn’t dwelling on the fact Riley may or may not have tried to kill her, she was more interested as to why Professor Walsh wanted her dead so urgently into her first few days of working at the headquarters. Its time Buffy and I figure out a plan to find out why.

“What did I ever do Walsh?” Buffy repeatedly said as we were thinking up ideas as to how to get into the headquarters. Buffy quit since her life had been threatened by someone who was supposed to be on her team. To get into the headquarters your body and eyes are scanned by lasers to ensure the correct person is entering. Suddenly a light went on in Buffy’s head “If I pretend I want to see Riley, he’ll be all ears and won’t pay attention to anything out of the ordinary. Willow If we can get you to create the body image spell I can abstract his Identity and we should be ready to go.”

Now it was my time to shine! I had to think up a way of creating the body image spell without Riley knowing it was happening. I could feel frown lines crease across my head as ideas started to churn. I looked over to Buffy who was applying lipstick. “Willow, what are you staring at?” after a second of realisation we laughed and knew we had the perfect idea. I grab my ingredients. The dried skins of a cicada and snakeskin, rose oil, wax from a pink candle and a drop of moon oil. I melt a portion of the pink candle into a bowl and grate in the skins of the cicada and snake. I then churn it into a paste, a couple of drops of rose oil and a drop of moon oil. I mould the paste into a lipstick shape and let it set. While the lipstick is setting I perform the most crucial part, the spell. I whisper aloud, “For two to look alike the bodies must unite, not a freckle out of place or an eyelash misplaced, become one so that you can see, when you look in the mirror you resemble thee.” Opening my eyes, pink dust falls from the air onto the lipstick. “Let’s put this spell into action!” Buffy excitedly applies the lipstick.  

Buffy knocks and instantly the door is opened, a puppy dog eyed Riley is on the other side of it. “Hey Ry” Buffy says, “I’m sorry I haven’t talked to you, the last few hours have been a rollercoaster.” “That’s fine.” Riley squeaks, Buffy edges closer to Riley’s face. “I thought I’d see you to get your side of the story, I broke up with you so fast I didn’t get to hear It.” by this point Buffy is inches away from Riley’s lips. “I wanted to say um...” He quivers under the pressure and gives in to Buffy’s seductiveness. They kiss, and Buffy’s lips tingle as the spell starts to work. Buffy pulls away abruptly from the kiss and heads toward the door, looking back she says “Sorry Riley, I have to go.” Riley replied with a wry evil looking smile, Buffy was confused as to why he smiled like that, but she was in too much of a rush to think much of it.

Moments later I see Buffy running towards me, at least I think its Buffy, she’s already started to transform.

We take the tunnel underground to the headquarters, once we get to the blind mirrored door I step aside and let Buffy do her thing. Red lasers beam out from the mirror before her and analyse Buffy’s body. The air is musty with tension as we wait to see the result. Within a few seconds a computer voice echoes “Riley Finn detected.” We slouch with relief.

We walk in a steady pace through the headquarters, the spell only works for twenty minutes. “Willow, we have to get to Professor Walsh’s office stat.” After a couple of minutes walking, we discover her office. The door was open, Professor Walsh is out. Buffy starts making a ruckus searching for any information on herself. After turning the office upside down Buffy is furious she hasn’t found anything. I watch as her eyes angrily scan the room, suddenly her eye brows raise and she leaps to the vent on the roof. She pulls out a black notebook.

Buffy Summers

A character with the ability to destroy any evil that crosses her path, I’m that evil. I want her dead. She has the intention of destroying my headquarters. She is smart and will soon figure out my plan to kill the human workers, except for my good boy Riley, and replace them with s. She is vile and I have no intention of keeping her around. The reason I got her to work here was to figure out how she works. I am the queen of this kingdom and this time it’s me that destroys what gets in my path.

This time it truly is Buffy that looks up from the notebook, her body image has transformed back to her own. Buffy’s face turned a deep shade of red, she slams the book to the ground and screams “Spiteful witch!” releasing her anger. A voice intruded “Sorry ladies am I interrupting something?” It was Walsh. Before I knew it a sharp prick pierced my neck and I collapsed to the ground, I had been paralysed. The only thing I could do was watch as Buffy fought for her life. Buffy went into survival mode and fought Walsh with all her strength. I watched as she punched Walsh’s ribs and kicked in her knees. All Walsh did was laugh, then in a matter of moments a gunshot was fired through the window. I couldn’t see who had been hit until I looked towards the floor, Buffy. Blood was flowing out from her head creating a red pool on the ground. I look out the office window to see who the culprit was, Riley. Before knew it, with a loud bang, my lights were out too. 





COMMENTARY:

My fan fiction piece represents parts of act 1 of Christopher Vogler’s The Hero’s Journey and re writes the Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode ‘Goodbye Iowa.’ Created by Joss Whedon.  

THE ORDINARY WORLD:
Readers see why Buffy is uncomfortable, uneasy and unaware.

“She was more interested as to why Professor Walsh wanted her dead so urgently into her first few days of working at the headquarters.”

“What did I ever do Walsh?” Buffy repeatedly said.”

Once presented with a Call to Adventure, she can no longer remain indefinitely in the comfort of the Ordinary World.” (Vogler, C.)

THE CALL TO ADVENTURE:
Readers see that Buffy and Willow want to figure out why Walsh wanted Buffy killed.
“Professor Walsh wanted her dead so urgently into her first few days of working at the headquarters. Its time Buffy and I figure out a plan to find out why.”

CHARACTER ARCHETYPES:

The episodes of BTVS that I watched there were three characters that stood out to me, Professor Walsh, Buffy and Willow. In terms of archetypes it is clear that Buffy is the Heroine. It was also clear that Whedon was a fan of Marvel characters, as he made the characters in BTVS live up to their potential as he does with his characters in movies such as The Avengers

The Heroine: Buffy Summers, the protagonist of the story and whom we associate with most. She is put in a higher duty than Willow and put others welfare before her own i.e. fighting Walsh while Willow had been paralysed. Buffy’s character achieved the goal of the story (finding out why she was wanted dead) but only at a terrible cost. (Vogler, 1998.)

The ‘Sidekick’: Willow, the hero’s companion. Willow is the character to whom the audience can more easily relate than the hero, or whom the audience can imagine themselves as being. Willow offers support to Buffy while they were on a missions. Buffy is also reliant on Willow to help figure plans and missions.

The Villain: Professor Walsh, struggles against the hero. The antagonist, cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness. This character has a negative effect on the characters, i.e. turning Riley against Buffy and trying to kill Buffy. Purposely putting them in danger. 

My story was much longer but it had to be reduced due to the word limit. There was much more dialogue between Buffy and Riley and more descriptive scenes when heading to the headquarters. I felt that the characters I used were close to Buffy in the original episodes and that made it easier for me to make up ideas for the story. I kept to part of the original episode storyline where Walsh tried to have Buffy Killed. But I thought I could re-write the story better if I used Willow’s character and narrate it from her point of view.





Caldwell, T. (2012). Joss Whedon’s character archetypes: The Avengers and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Cinema Autopsy. Retrieved 1 November 2015, from http://blog.cinemaautopsy.com/2012/05/02/joss-whedons-character-archetypes-the-avengers-and-buffy-the-vampire-slayer/

Vogler, C. (1998). The writer's journey. Studio City, CA: M. Wiese Productions.

Vogler, C., & Montez, M. (2007). The writer's journey (3rd ed., p. 10). Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions. 


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