Green Eyed Monster

Okay, so I decided to get over my thing for actually finishing stories before I show them to anyone and just post what I got. It doesn't add up to a story yet. But it does add up to more words in a row than I've actually put on a page since the last Highlander fic I finished, and that was a very long time ago. Well, most words of a fic, I can babble at length. See?

Buffy fanfic, follows 'A New Man', features Ethan. Unfinished, may never be finished, because I start waaaaay more than I finish. This part lacking sex or violence, but I intend to make up for that if I ever finish it.

So:

Green Eyed Monster

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becca had an Ethan thought

http://ethan.amongst-thieves.com/
specifically
http://ethan.amongst-thieves.com/strengths.php

I disagreed with some of what the site owner had written about Ethan, so I wrote to them about it, so now they put my little essay thingy on their site. Coolness.


moved to http://onenine85.net/ethan/strengths.php


I'll post it in here in case it wanders off again:

A Different View: Ethan's Strengths
by beccaelizabeth

Ethan talks, Ethan cowers, and Ethan runs. These are his strengths. And the only thing we've seen him sacrifice is himself.

Ethan is a man who believes in the power of words. So Ethan talks when he seems to be alone, when no one wants to listen or when his audience just went out the door. At the very least his words change him. Get the right ones and they change a lot more than that. The right words to the right person at the right time, or just words whispered to the darkness. There is always something listening. Chant, give voice, speak in a dead tongue, and anything is possible. Words change the world.

Ethan cowers when someone raises a hand to him- sometimes. When it suits him. When there is something he wants from them. If he doesn't much mind if they hit him, he'll stand there and get hit. If he needs them to listen instead he'll do what it takes to get them to change. If that involves a little cowering, why not? They do what he wants. That is power, regardless of appearances.

Ethan runs. But that doesn't make him a coward. Most people grab on to things, grasp what they define as precious, hold what they feel is theirs. Territorial beings. Losing ground is losing something that defines them. Running away from a threat means abandoning what they hold dear, and therefore it is cowardice. If instead of ground you value air, ideas, keeping on breathing, then running is defending what you define as precious, and therefore a kind of courage. To be able to stay fluid, adapt to circumstance, change the location, change the game- that is what strategy is all about. Ethan doesn't need a castle, or specific place to stand, just a way to keep breathing. Strength.

To give up something you value is to sacrifice. It's been said that 'the only things Ethan will sacrifice are animals, birds and anyone other than himself.' But in canon the only thing we've ever seen him sacrifice is himself- his pain and blood, offered up as he entreats Janus to take the night for the god's own purposes. Not giving what he has for what he wants, not a bargain or transaction, but a true sacrifice, offering himself up to the will of his god.

Buffy, marked up to take his place with Eyghon, looks like a sacrifice. But Ethan puts himself in harm's way by treating the Slayer as he does. She had already declared her intent to protect him, so why mark her? It makes her better able to do precisely what she has said she wants to do- protect Giles. Without messing about looking after Ethan. After all she would fight to the death for Giles anyway, putting the mark on her instead of Ethan just means she can do that without distraction. So later whoever survives is going to want to do Ethan some damage. He knows. He helps her anyway. Isn't that self-sacrificing of him?

;-)

With Janus, Ethan and life in general, there are always at least two ways to look at anything. Sometimes both are something like true. And it is a lot more fun that way.