PART
1: FAN FICTION (BUFFY)
Willow sat in her chair nervously as she scanned the classroom
looking for her friend. The fight they’d had on the phone last night made her
feel as though Buffy’s absence was her fault. She alerted her head to the door
as a student entered, it was Zander. He had a laptop bag hung from his one
shoulder and a grim look on his face.
“Have you
seen Buffy anywhere?” Willow asked, trying her best not to sound alarming.
He shrugged his laptop bag off his side and onto a
nearby desk.
“No, but
Willow,” he paused and checked his surroundings. “I need you to meet me in the
library after class. I received a really weird voicemail from Buffy late last
night. Something isn’t right.”
As Zander sat himself down tensely, Willow returned to
her own thoughts. Last night’s phone conversation had been horrible. Buffy had
been dedicating all of her time and attention to her new boyfriend Riley, and
that stupid excuse of a protection agency that he had recruited her into. When
Willow had finally voiced her opinions on the whole thing, Buffy had blown up
in her face. And now she wasn’t even coming to class.
“Great,” whispered Willow only to herself. “Now
I’ve gone and done it.”
After the long and monotonous class had dragged to an
end, Willow made her way towards the library as Zander had asked her to. On her
way she thought it best to call Buffy, and at least make sure that she was
okay. As she held the phone to her ear with an apology on the tip of her tongue,
the phone didn’t even ring. The call had gone directly to the message bank,
meaning Buffy’s phone wasn’t even turned on, or worse, she had voided the call
altogether.
She hadn’t even realised that she’d arrived at the
library when she did, for she was still fixated on her cell phone and the possibility
that perhaps this time Buffy wasn’t interested in making amends.
“WILLOW!”
Zander yelled at her, and she suddenly realised where she was. “What took you
so long? Buffy is in trouble, hurry up!”
“Buffy is in
trouble?” She recited the words back to him in a confused state, as if the idea
might not have even been a possibility.
“Yes,” he
said rolling his eyes. “And you took forever to get here, Giles and I thought
maybe something had happened to you as well.”
“Well I’m
fine. It’s Buffy I want to know about,” she seemed suddenly switched on. “Tell
me everything.”
“From what I gather,”
Zander started, “After that fight you two had last night Buffy went to the agency,
I’m guessing to confide in Riley, only I think she stumbled upon more than she’d
bargained for. I didn’t check it until this morning, but I had a voicemail from
her, she was whispering, something about how the agency wasn’t what she thought
it was. Something
about experiments… on agents. She didn’t have a chance
to tell me anything else, the phone cut out.”
Willow stared at Zander and then to Giles and back to
Zander as he continued talking.
“I looked for
her everywhere this morning, but when I realised she was missing I knew
something bad had happened last night. I came to Giles before class this
morning, and he’s been doing some reading.”
“Some reading
on what?” Willow was becoming increasingly more worried by the minute.
“Well Willow,”
Giles cut in, “I’ve done some digging into this so-called protection agency and
it’s not uncommon that now and then, their recruits just vanish into thin air.
Not all of them, but some. Usually the more talented of the trained force,
which struck me as odd.”
From the masses of thickly bound books that surrounded
them, Giles then uncovered an old newspaper article and handed it toward
Willow. The title of the article read ‘SUNNYVALE
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT IN MAXIMUM SECURITY AFTER RANDOM ATTACKS.’.
“I don’t understand.”
Said Willow.
“The student
in the newspaper, he was a recruit two years earlier in the agency with Riley,”
Giles explained, “The boy remains psychotic. He has no recollection of his
former self or family. Something happened to him in that place and I’m guessing
it was no accident. I believe these missing recruits are being groomed for
something bigger. How this one escaped is beyond me.”
Willow stared down at the newspaper clipping, taking
in all the information she had just received. Suddenly, the thought of Buffy
simply being stubbornly mad at her didn’t seem like such a disaster after all.
“I can’t
believe all this happened just last night,” said Willow. She spoke with a hint
of regret in her voice. “I mean, Buffy is usually the one to remedy a problem…
If there’s a problem, call Buffy. Now that she is in trouble I can’t help but
feel slightly useless and somewhat responsible.”
“Actually,”
Said Zander, “You are going to be the biggest use of all.”
“This is way
beyond petty witchcraft Zander, come on.” Said Willow.
“No Willow,
you’re wrong.” Zander corrected her. “If Buffy really has been somewhat
body-snatched as Giles believes, then your so-called petty witchcraft is our
best bet at getting our friend back.”
Zander had used his fingers as quotation marks as he’d
mimicked the word ‘petty’, which made Willow smile momentarily.
“OK, for
Buffy,” she said, now with a more determined tone. “What’s the plan?”
Zander made a notion with his head at Giles, who
peered at them both through the top of his glasses.
“I’m afraid,
if my thoughts prove true, you two will be going up against something more
complicated than ever before.” Giles looked at the two of the students with
great concern as he spoke. “According to the time of Buffy’s last voicemail to
Zander, she could have been attacked over 12 hours ago.”
“Which means
we better get a move on then.” Zander cut in quickly.
“No Zander,”
said Giles, “It means that given the amount of time Buffy has been unaccounted
for, she may already have been turned. And it could be your own friend you are
fighting this time.”
The look on Willows face dropped.
“Hold on, Giles…
This is a rescue mission is it not?” Willow asked.
“Well, for
now, our main focus should be to get Buffy home… Regardless of the state she be
in. I don’t want either of you to be distracted by the thought of Buffy as your
friend. She could be, well, she could be a danger to you both. And I am asking
neither of you to do this as a sacrifice.” Giles spoke with a worry in his
voice.
“That’s where
you come in Wil,” said Zander. “If you can perform a sleeping charm on any
version of Buffy that we happen to encounter, then we can bring her back to the
library and try and reverse whatever it is that bloody agency is doing up
there.”
Willow nodded assuredly. A simple sleeping charm was
child’s play for her ability. However, the more she thought about it, the more
complications began to rise.
“How are
Zander and I supposed to get into the agency undetected?” Willow questioned. “Buffy
said that only registered recruits have full access to the facility.”
Giles looked matter-of-factly at Willow.
“I’ve located
Riley on campus. It appears he is rather a tool, but not the sharpest tool it
seems. He isn’t even aware of the fact that his girlfriend is missing.” Giles
was speaking fast. “I slipped a note into his locker actually, telling him to
come to the library at lunch noon… Signed Buffy.”
Zander looked down at his watch with speed.
“Its five to
noon now Giles, he’s going to be here any minute.” Zander looked panicked.
Giles placed his hands in his pockets in a nonchalant
manner, and turned to face Willow, as if to suggest that she had it sorted.
Willow seemed unconfident with both Giles and Zander’s eyes on her. Just as she
was beginning to doubt herself, the library door swung open.
“Buffy?
Buffy, are you in here?” Riley’s voice echoed throughout the library.
Willow’s brow furrowed momentarily. Nobody had to say
anything before she stepped out from behind a case of books and recited an
incantation that put Riley’s body to sleep on the floor.
“Well,”
huffed Willow, rather pleased with herself, “let’s do this.”
She started dragging Riley’s body to a more concealed
part of the library, while Giles and Zander looked on in awe before
accompanying her with the dragging of the hefty jock.
PART 2: COMMENTARY
Whilst keeping the original
setting and characters of Buffy, my main interest in writing this fan fiction
was to centralise Willows character as the protagonist/hero, and turn Buffy’s
character into a temporary villain. With the smaller word requirement, I chose
to focus more on the set up/act one phase of the mythic structure, as I thought
that positioning my characters was most important. Having focused on the set up,
my characters could then easily be identified in terms of their archetypal roles.
Vogler (1998) states that
Act I of a common mythic narrative starts in an ordinary world, with the hero
being quite ordinary. He goes on to note the next common characteristics the
mythic structure takes is – the hero’s call to adventure, the hero’s refusal to
the call, the hero’s meeting with the mentor, and finally crossing the threshold.
I chose to mimic this narrative for my own story where Willow, who is my chosen
protagonist is seemingly ordinary to begin with yet called to adventure by the
complication of her missing friend, Buffy. Initially she refuses to believe
that she is capable of the adventure, but is soon convinced by mentor, and
helper characters Giles and Zander.
Because Vogler suggests
that a mythic narrative begin in an ordinary world, I decided on Willow as my
protagonist, as readers are already under the impression that Buffy is
extraordinary. I thought that by using Willow as my hero, the turning points
which Vogler describes in Act I, would be more defined.
Vogler (1998), influenced
by Campbell, Jung and Propp devised his own set of seven character archetypes which
he suggested fundamental to story-telling. His archetypal characters are labelled
– The Hero, the Mentor, the Threshold Guardian, the Herald, the Shapeshifter,
the Shadow and the Trickster. In my own short piece of writing I’ve incorporated
four of Voglers key character archetypes. Where Willow normally takes the Herald
role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, here
she takes the irregular place of the Hero. Zander takes the role of Herald to
Willow and Giles remains in his regular role as Mentor. It is Buffy herself who
has the biggest shift in character as she fills the role of the Shadow. Vogler
notes that the Shadow archetype may be humanised or integrated by the Hero in
the process. This was a suitable character for Buffy as although I don’t make
it to the final act, it
was my intention for her
to be a villain only temporarily and to have Willow guide her back to humanity,
much like Vogler’s narrative structure allows.
I found Vogler’s ideas of
narrative structure and archetypal characters was easily applied to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The
universality of the roles, made them applicable to any of the characters, and I
had fun playing around with the different plot ideas. In writing this piece of
fan fiction, the structure of narrative and function of characters which Vogler
has devised is clearly a suitable formula for storytelling.
References
Vogler, C. (1998) The writer’s journey: Mythic structure for
writers. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions.
