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Date Posted: 01:54:00 11/04/02 Mon
Author: Bri
Author Host/IP: cpe-66-1-253-227.co.sprintbbd.net / 66.1.253.227
Subject: Re: General Review & Discussion: Tabula Rasa By Lori Bush (BX)
In reply to: KatLurkin 's message, "General Review & Discussion: Tabula Rasa By Lori Bush (BX)" on 19:29:23 10/28/02 Mon

I really don't know what to say about this story, which is in itself a problem. If I can't say I loved it or hated it, to me, it's not very interesting. I don't know, I liked it, somewhat. It's just that it wasn't captivating.

I haven't read stuff at fanfiction.net before, so I wasn't aware of the way they set chapters up. The first time around I read the first chapter, thought that was the entire story. Mildly interested, but more relatively bored. It wasn't until I started reading everyone else's reviews that I realized I'd missed some stuff, so I went back and figured it out, read the whole thing. And I'm having difficulty coming up with something to say about it other than, "Eh. It was a B/X story."

There were some good things about it. I liked the concept of Buffy coming back without her memories. Sometimes a fresh start, without preconceptions, is a good way to look at things. I also liked Anya, and I believed that her reunion with D'Hoffryn wasn't based out of malice but out of hope and confusion. To me, her and Cordy's characterizations were the ones that rang the truest. I also liked Spike, although it was hard for me to see him and Xander being all chummy, but Lori explained it well.

There were really glaringly obvious problems as well. Aside from the fact that I like the idea of a clean slate for Buffy, I have to agree with someone else's review (and I apologize for not knowing whose-there are lots of pieces of reviews that I agreed with that I may mention but I can't remember who wrote what), that it's not cool that Buffy could only love Xander if she didn't remember him. And that Xander would tolerate it... That's just wrong. He's come a long way from being the guy who would accept being degraded like that. Not only that, but he's never been the type to take advantage, again as someone else pointed out, as exemplified in BBB.

I disliked Spike and Angel being all eager to hand Buffy over to Xander, both having found their peace/happiness with another female. Granted, both Spike and Dawn and Angel and Cordy have canonical relationships of a sort, but I don't think either vampire would be all happy to see Buffy throwing herself at Xander. Spike especially wouldn't give up so easy-Angel's had his time to move on, but the last we saw of Spike and Buffy, he was still putting the idea of their relationship on a pedestal and nothing and no one could talk him into abandoning it. A summer of her being dead and all of a sudden he's moving on to little sis and perfectly blase about her feelings for someone else? Not likely.

That said, I do like the way she progressed. She started out being weak and simple and girly, and she finally got to the point of being the Buffy we know, knowing what she wanted and fighting for it. A lot of people mentioned that, as well as Xander being an idealized, "perfect" version, and I was expecting to agree, but I didn't see it *so* much. I disliked how he went high and mighty on Anya, even knowing that he was partially at fault for her decision and also after listening to her explanation and apology. However, there was a lot of internal exposition that revealed to us that he *knew* he was being a jerk, and he was trying to do the right thing, but he wasn't always, and there was a lot of confusion in his head and he didn't know what to do. That's life. I think Lori did a good job with him. I like POV fics for that reason-we get a clearer view of a character's thoughts and motivations. In a long fic like this, however, sometimes it's not the best way to go.

Okay, so I didn't think I knew what to say, and it turns out I had too much to say. LOL Overall, I think the problem for me is that although there were lots of elements to dissect, some of which I really liked and some of which I intensely disliked, as a whole the story was just surface skimming. Nothing went deep enough to satisfy my curiosity. "What made Buffy come back without her memories? How did she start developing them again? What was Willow's motivation? Why were all the characters so eager to get Buffy and Xander together?" I read the story with only slight interest, and once I came to the end, I didn't feel an overwhelming sense of *anything*. I wasn't excited, or happy, or bothered, or irritated, or anything else. It was kind of like the mental equivalent of a shrug. As one of my friends would say, it made me go, "Meh. Done now. What next?"

So I guess although there were good spots here and there, the lack of involvement will take my rating down much lower than it would be otherwise. I give it a 73.

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[> [> Re: Missing chapters -- Muttley, 18:25:38 11/05/02 Tue (inktomi1-swa.server.ntl.com/213.105.224.4)

Bri

Glad to know i wasn't only me who only read the first chapter and thought "huh?". As you say, it was only reading other reviews that made me think "am i missing something here". Nice to know i'm not the only one. Thanks


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