Pairing that never met
Dec. 22nd, 2004 05:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethIs probably a sign of something when you start convincing yourself of the rightness of a pairing where the two characters never met.
Post series
Andrew/Oz
Okay, it looks like a stretch. But I'll take a shortcut- Xander/Oz, only darker. Andrew is like the dark ubergeeky Xander that never had a Willow, much less a Buffy. Or, um, a clue, I admit. But if Xander/Oz works because of the contrasts and the shared geeking and the words vs quiet and all the other great reasons it does work then a whole lot of that still applies with Andrew/Oz.
Also, both musical. Okay, the didgeridoo and panpipes were both magical tools, but still, music.
And there is the both-killed-someone factor. Which really, not a *nice* thing to bring people together, but something they can both understand. How it wears at them, how they both want to move on from that but it is always going to be there. Lots of angsty stuff.
The stuff that gets in the way? If you don't count 'never met' because since when do slash writers worry about that?
Well, Oz is probably a lot more sane than Andrew. Canon Oz anyway. I can think of a lot of plausible Ozim that kinda left conventional sanity a few exits back. If Oz is saner, there is the 'and he would put up with him for why?' issue. I think if they had a common goal Oz would be tolerant of Andrew's puppy behaviour (follow him around). Actually, put like that- puppy and werewolf! Perfect match!!1! ;)
If they are both a little bit divergent from consensus reality then it gets darker, but all kinds of twisted interesting. I don't mean anything extreme, I just mean an Oz who has had to change his thought patterns in certain ways just to survive, ways that would make most people look at him funny. Oz is always an outsider, but he could get stuck waaaay out there.
Andrew is never going to lose his one tether to consensus reality- pop culture, geek style. Comics and films and tv shows are always going to be there for him. Which, okay, part of the problem (vulcans), but an Oz who has cut himself off from the world might find geeking a way back in.
The part that made me think maybe I was losing my mind is I thought maybe it would even work better than Oz/Xander nowadays. I mean, Xander is still the good guy. The solid guy. In a lot of ways, still surprisingly normal. He doesn't have that killed-someone darkness. He can in some versions have his own darkness, and in canon he believes a vision that shows him losing control and letting his violence kill someone, so he has that total fear of his own dark side. But he hasn't been there and out again. He'd forgive Oz, no worries, but he wouldn't understand. To the point where he might not see it as anything to forgive- sure Oz killed werewolf-girl, but she was trying to kill Willow! And besides, werewolf! Killing the not-humans doesn't count as much! Oh, yeah, sorry Oz...
I think Xander/Oz could work and be a lot more healthy than Andrew/Oz ever could, because lack of Andrew. But an Oz that only just overlaps with healthy might have more in common with Andrew.
Yeah, I kind of don't want to convince myself... and yet the idea persists...
Post series
Andrew/Oz
Okay, it looks like a stretch. But I'll take a shortcut- Xander/Oz, only darker. Andrew is like the dark ubergeeky Xander that never had a Willow, much less a Buffy. Or, um, a clue, I admit. But if Xander/Oz works because of the contrasts and the shared geeking and the words vs quiet and all the other great reasons it does work then a whole lot of that still applies with Andrew/Oz.
Also, both musical. Okay, the didgeridoo and panpipes were both magical tools, but still, music.
And there is the both-killed-someone factor. Which really, not a *nice* thing to bring people together, but something they can both understand. How it wears at them, how they both want to move on from that but it is always going to be there. Lots of angsty stuff.
The stuff that gets in the way? If you don't count 'never met' because since when do slash writers worry about that?
Well, Oz is probably a lot more sane than Andrew. Canon Oz anyway. I can think of a lot of plausible Ozim that kinda left conventional sanity a few exits back. If Oz is saner, there is the 'and he would put up with him for why?' issue. I think if they had a common goal Oz would be tolerant of Andrew's puppy behaviour (follow him around). Actually, put like that- puppy and werewolf! Perfect match!!1! ;)
If they are both a little bit divergent from consensus reality then it gets darker, but all kinds of twisted interesting. I don't mean anything extreme, I just mean an Oz who has had to change his thought patterns in certain ways just to survive, ways that would make most people look at him funny. Oz is always an outsider, but he could get stuck waaaay out there.
Andrew is never going to lose his one tether to consensus reality- pop culture, geek style. Comics and films and tv shows are always going to be there for him. Which, okay, part of the problem (vulcans), but an Oz who has cut himself off from the world might find geeking a way back in.
The part that made me think maybe I was losing my mind is I thought maybe it would even work better than Oz/Xander nowadays. I mean, Xander is still the good guy. The solid guy. In a lot of ways, still surprisingly normal. He doesn't have that killed-someone darkness. He can in some versions have his own darkness, and in canon he believes a vision that shows him losing control and letting his violence kill someone, so he has that total fear of his own dark side. But he hasn't been there and out again. He'd forgive Oz, no worries, but he wouldn't understand. To the point where he might not see it as anything to forgive- sure Oz killed werewolf-girl, but she was trying to kill Willow! And besides, werewolf! Killing the not-humans doesn't count as much! Oh, yeah, sorry Oz...
I think Xander/Oz could work and be a lot more healthy than Andrew/Oz ever could, because lack of Andrew. But an Oz that only just overlaps with healthy might have more in common with Andrew.
Yeah, I kind of don't want to convince myself... and yet the idea persists...