Fic: “By the Rose-Wreath’d Gate”

[aadler]

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Title: “By the Rose-Wreath’d Gate”
Author: aadler
Rating: PG
Season: post-Seventh (Buffy)
Genre: Character interaction, retrospective
Characters/Relationships: Giles, memories
Summary: Can a good look back help to choose a good path forward? Let’s put that to the test.
Word count: 4,723

Story at LiveJournal – at Dreamwidth – at Ao3

Comments

[accioawesome]

I love seeing Deidre and Olivia fleshed out and you do a lot with them in few words!

I love the parallels you’ve shown between Jenny’s responsibilities to her people and Giles’ responsibilities to the council, and Joyce and Giles as two sides of Buffy’s family.

Each zoom in on the women Giles has found himself with were spot on.

The reveal of Anya was unexpected but very nice! I adore her.

[aadler]

I’m pleased that you were pleased. I’ll need to give the story time to age a bit before I can assess for myself how well it matched what I intended to present, but for now I’m not too DISsatisfied.

These are rich, layered characters, and exploring those depths offers a lot of possibilities. If this one worked as a story (and as a submission for summer_of_giles), then I’m glad.