I can suspended narrative disbelief pretty easily, but emotional disbelief is a whole 'nother thing for me. If that makes sense.

That makes the most sense for me. This is a story about vampires, demons, super-strong 90lb women, and witches who can flay people. So I'm not put off when "the monks made her from me" or "this orb does such and such". All that high concept stuff, to me, (even the stuff that is done exceptionally well) is just device to tell me that when you sleep with a guy before you're both sure and ready, and he ends up monstrous, you shouldn't be that surprised; and that no matter how unfair it is, people like Joyce and Tara die every day.

I can suspended narrative disbelief pretty easily, but emotional disbelief is a whole 'nother thing for me. If that makes sense.

It makes sense-but again, for me, I find people in real life constantly violating my sense of their "emotional truth" so a fictional character acting "out of character" can actually increase my sense of them as ultimately unknowable and therefor more real. (There is a chapter in Buffy and Philosophy dealing-sort of- with this, using Willow as an example.)

You know, if Buffy & Spike had had The Sex, the house probably would have been trashed before the town did the big sucky thing.

Nah, because even my Spuffy imagination can't imagine that they had anything other than sweet missionary potato sex. Once.

Nah, because even my Spuffy imagination can't imagine that they had anything other than sweet missionary potato sex. Once.

Female superior, but quiet, and more for the being there and together than for any sort of endgame.

Not, you know, that I spent a good deal of my time yesterday thinking about it for reasons related to fic stuff or anything.

This is a story about vampires, demons, super-strong 90lb women, and witches who can flay people.

And researchers being important. And ordinary people doing great deeds -- or just helping others do great deeds.

It's the revenge of the rest of us.

Reading Mejiaville made me remember something I wanted to say yesterday: the deaths of Spike and Anya were set up beautifully by the Previouslys. Spike's line about only ever believing in one thing (Buffy) makes his sacrifice so fitting and bittersweet and moving. In contrast, "We're dealing with a Big Bad that can be any dead person it wants" for the eightieth time makes one hope and pray for Anya's quick and painful end.

That cryptic crossword was great.

Yeah, Kevin is an amazing constructor. I don't think I've ever done a puzzle of his that didn't make me gasp at the beauty of it. He also wrote what is (IMNSHO) the greatest piece of Xena filk ever. It's at [link] And other places - a lot of people were struck by its beauty & posted it.

I'm still stuck on the whole talisman deal, though. I mean, I get the idea, having done many cryptics before--I just can't *find* the thing. Is it based on an outline of certain letters? Is there shading on the grid that I can't see?

No, there's nothing funky about the grid.

Both whitefont and vagueness appreciated in answering.

I'm with you on that - in my circles giving away answers is worse than spoiling. I'm still pretty new on the board, and this is my first time white fonting. If I mess it up, I'll come back & edit.

General hint for solving cryptics, esp. Kevin's: Read the instructions carefully. There's nothing tricky or deceptive there, but the nature of the instructions should give you some sense of the talisman.

Direct answer to your question about outlines of letters: It's not the outlines of letters. It's entire letters; entire words actually. Note that the instructions say that there are some words entirely within the talisman.

Process hint (how I solved it): I "backsolved, " which means I figured out what the tribute was - you should be able to as well, then figured out which clues were in which class and so figured out where the talisman was, and saw it clearly.

What-is-the-talisman hint: It's a common wordplay thing - you've probably encountered it before. Look over the entire grid - big chunks of it.

Hope this helps, but not too much. I'm happy to vague-hint individual clues, too.

(bookmarks Jenny's post, just in case)

I adore cryptic crosswords, and I intend to tackle this one over lunch.

Also, that Xena filk is fabulous!

It's the revenge of the rest of us.

You know, I love to read you, Fred. There's an emotional truth to posts, too. It's the stuff that reaches me even when I don't happen to share the poster's take on event X. I do happen to agree with you frequently, but that's beside the point. I find it happening each time I read your posts, much like when I read little bam bam's (a Bronzer and lately a delurking Buffista).

So what was Xander's journey in S7?

Buffy's was to be overwhelmed by the responsibility of leadership, try to handle it by using her power to take control, and then to eventually win by sharing her power.

Willow's was the reverse of Buffy's in some ways - she had to move from being afraid of her power to a point where she's willing to claim it and even risk losing control over it.

Dawn was claiming her own power in her own way - claiming the right to make her own choices, rather than being a passive vessel for power like she was in S5.

Anya's tough to work into the "power" theme. I really liked where I thought they were pointing her in Selfless - figuring out who she is and listening to that person - but they really kind of dropped that afterwards. I'm left with her deciding... I dunno. Rectitude is more important than power? Since she was willing to give it up.

Spike... well, I'm assured by Spike fans that he reached a point where he found his own effulgence rather than defining himself through a girl. I'm not sure I saw that, but I'm willing to buy it as another example of someone claiming inner power.

Giles was presumably supposed to be coming to terms with giving up power to Buffy, though unfortunately that was expressed through pod Giles.

I can't make Xander fit, though. Poor guy.