permanent damage in the Buffyverse
Dec. 23rd, 2005 07:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethBecause my brain can devote huge amounts of time to the most irrelevant problems, I been thinking on something.
Generally, its a thing about the under utilisation of magic that was used as a one off plot device in the Buffyverse.
Specifically, its about a fic where Giles got hit on the head one too many times and ended up with permanent brain damage. Amnesia. Basically starting over as a new person, not quite bright, but a nice enough sort.
(This probably isn't an accurate summary of the fic I was thinking of, but it was the situation I was thinking on.)
So, medecine has done its bit, rehab worked only this far and no further, and that is what they are left with. New guy. And oddly enough, this would be depressing, because old guy would no longer be there. So, what to do?
RL, learn to live with it. Depressing.
Buffyverse?
Turning him into a vampire probably wouldn't help. The damage is to his brain, neural tissue, and Spike's back healed up fine. But his eyebrow didn't. Fork guy didn't get a new hand. And Dru never got less crazy. The whole vampire healing gig seems to be a bit hit and miss. And even if a newly vamped Giles got 100% brain function back, it still wouldn't be the return of Giles. It would be Giles version 3, demon edition. Demon walking around in Giles' corpse.
Of course then you could put his soul back in. Version 4? Or version 1 with a new body?
Of course you could just take the soul *out*. The damage is to the brain, not the soul, so presumably his spirit would have 100% of his memory. Granted, corporeality is a definite plus, and there is a word for them as don't have it - generally, 'dead'. But perhaps Giles could try a bit of astral projection, leave the damaged house for a bit and give advice from a slightly more floaty state. Would be a bit of a problem for stuff like dating, or fighting, though.
It seems unlikely that a memory spell could fix things. We've seen people write memories in before. Finding out all his original memories would probably be tricky, but if it was simple amnesia / data loss, there are spells we've seen that could counter it. But if the hard drive is screwed, putting the old data back in won't help. Need new hard drive.
New body?
If all the original Giles data is in his spirit, and they can pour that into a new body, they'd get Giles back. Sort of. Giles version... I've lost count. Anyway, new Giles - new neurochemistry, new hormones (especially if the convenient available body happened to not be male, but any two sets of hormones would be different). All his old memories, but still, not his old self precisely.
Body swaps seem relatively simple - Amy's mom did them, and that gadget Faith used, and Willow and Tara whipped up a charm to do the same thing in less than 24 hours. One wonders, with this degree of ease, why anyone stays in the original habitat. Habit I guess. Or possibly morals - after all, the person they swap with would be dumped in the unwanted body.
How about combining a few solutions - the realism of lifelike 'bots, like the Buffybot, and the spirit download capability that the demon Moloch unwittingly discovered. Make a lifelike Gilesbot and pour the undamaged spirit in, with all his memories and smarts. Stronger Giles with video playback option! And easy external control. And batteries that need recharging. And the whole 'technically dead' problem.
And with any of those methods, Giles version 2, nice but dim, would be erased. Very sad.
What about the Toth stick? 2 versions - one with all the good qualities of Giles the uber Watcher, his version 1 self, the other with the knocked on the head too many times flaws, version 2. Ideal! Except, of course, it is unlikely to be that tidy. Good-things Giles might not actually have all the parts people look for in their Gileses, and not-so-good might not like the arrangement much, seeing as he'd end up with all the clumsy and a probable shortage of ability to improve. Except the Xanders got more like each other, so once split they could still change. Which, oh dear, could mean a gradual dimming of Giles version 1.
Acquiring a Giles from an alternate universe would leave nice-but-dim in place. There are of course infinite other Gileses, and if one got grabbed at random they could be even dimmer, or not at all nice. But even assuming an absolutely ideal Giles, identical in all respects except for the bit where he ducked in time, there's still the slight problem that his original universe presumably still needs him.
So, none of these magic thingies are 100% ideal cure alls. But they are all options with their own strengths. Maybe they could mix and match. Swap bodies on the weekends (maybe giving the one stuck in slightly damaged Giles body a bit of a rest from the tedious thinking parts of life. Use the amnesia for fun - watch favourite films for the first time!). Use the Toth stick (not necessarily for recreational purposes), short term so the levelling out thing doesn't remove the benefits. Save the 'ghost' option for emergencies of course. Maybe ones combined with the 'vampire' thing. Can vampire victims be ghosts? Even if their bodies are up and running around? Desecration of graves is one of the traditional ghost causations, and someone crawling out of it and stealing all the parts would definitely qualify.
All kinds of plots in there anyways.
And all these kinds of magics mostly get used for making plot difficulties, making monsters. But surely if people had them available they'd make much more complicated options too. Like, someone you love is dying? Find them a new body! Not just for evil people any more!
Or that Paragon spell - obviously the coolest guy in the world wouldn't be dying. And equally obviously he could come up with all the really cool medical innovations he needed. And, okay, theres the teensy tiny monster problem, and the fact the spell is unstable according to Adam, but the good things Jonathan did actually did outlast the spell, to some extent, so why not try to use that for a last ditch boost? Its a bit like the s4 combine the scoobies spell, only much bigger, and (important thing) without the consent of the participants. Morally dubious on that count, of course, but if it could save the world? Or save lives? Or save a life, the one that really matters?
Lots of ways to do stuff.
Of course the stuff I actually need to do is *sleep*, but to some part of my brain, this is obviously more important.
Generally, its a thing about the under utilisation of magic that was used as a one off plot device in the Buffyverse.
Specifically, its about a fic where Giles got hit on the head one too many times and ended up with permanent brain damage. Amnesia. Basically starting over as a new person, not quite bright, but a nice enough sort.
(This probably isn't an accurate summary of the fic I was thinking of, but it was the situation I was thinking on.)
So, medecine has done its bit, rehab worked only this far and no further, and that is what they are left with. New guy. And oddly enough, this would be depressing, because old guy would no longer be there. So, what to do?
RL, learn to live with it. Depressing.
Buffyverse?
Turning him into a vampire probably wouldn't help. The damage is to his brain, neural tissue, and Spike's back healed up fine. But his eyebrow didn't. Fork guy didn't get a new hand. And Dru never got less crazy. The whole vampire healing gig seems to be a bit hit and miss. And even if a newly vamped Giles got 100% brain function back, it still wouldn't be the return of Giles. It would be Giles version 3, demon edition. Demon walking around in Giles' corpse.
Of course then you could put his soul back in. Version 4? Or version 1 with a new body?
Of course you could just take the soul *out*. The damage is to the brain, not the soul, so presumably his spirit would have 100% of his memory. Granted, corporeality is a definite plus, and there is a word for them as don't have it - generally, 'dead'. But perhaps Giles could try a bit of astral projection, leave the damaged house for a bit and give advice from a slightly more floaty state. Would be a bit of a problem for stuff like dating, or fighting, though.
It seems unlikely that a memory spell could fix things. We've seen people write memories in before. Finding out all his original memories would probably be tricky, but if it was simple amnesia / data loss, there are spells we've seen that could counter it. But if the hard drive is screwed, putting the old data back in won't help. Need new hard drive.
New body?
If all the original Giles data is in his spirit, and they can pour that into a new body, they'd get Giles back. Sort of. Giles version... I've lost count. Anyway, new Giles - new neurochemistry, new hormones (especially if the convenient available body happened to not be male, but any two sets of hormones would be different). All his old memories, but still, not his old self precisely.
Body swaps seem relatively simple - Amy's mom did them, and that gadget Faith used, and Willow and Tara whipped up a charm to do the same thing in less than 24 hours. One wonders, with this degree of ease, why anyone stays in the original habitat. Habit I guess. Or possibly morals - after all, the person they swap with would be dumped in the unwanted body.
How about combining a few solutions - the realism of lifelike 'bots, like the Buffybot, and the spirit download capability that the demon Moloch unwittingly discovered. Make a lifelike Gilesbot and pour the undamaged spirit in, with all his memories and smarts. Stronger Giles with video playback option! And easy external control. And batteries that need recharging. And the whole 'technically dead' problem.
And with any of those methods, Giles version 2, nice but dim, would be erased. Very sad.
What about the Toth stick? 2 versions - one with all the good qualities of Giles the uber Watcher, his version 1 self, the other with the knocked on the head too many times flaws, version 2. Ideal! Except, of course, it is unlikely to be that tidy. Good-things Giles might not actually have all the parts people look for in their Gileses, and not-so-good might not like the arrangement much, seeing as he'd end up with all the clumsy and a probable shortage of ability to improve. Except the Xanders got more like each other, so once split they could still change. Which, oh dear, could mean a gradual dimming of Giles version 1.
Acquiring a Giles from an alternate universe would leave nice-but-dim in place. There are of course infinite other Gileses, and if one got grabbed at random they could be even dimmer, or not at all nice. But even assuming an absolutely ideal Giles, identical in all respects except for the bit where he ducked in time, there's still the slight problem that his original universe presumably still needs him.
So, none of these magic thingies are 100% ideal cure alls. But they are all options with their own strengths. Maybe they could mix and match. Swap bodies on the weekends (maybe giving the one stuck in slightly damaged Giles body a bit of a rest from the tedious thinking parts of life. Use the amnesia for fun - watch favourite films for the first time!). Use the Toth stick (not necessarily for recreational purposes), short term so the levelling out thing doesn't remove the benefits. Save the 'ghost' option for emergencies of course. Maybe ones combined with the 'vampire' thing. Can vampire victims be ghosts? Even if their bodies are up and running around? Desecration of graves is one of the traditional ghost causations, and someone crawling out of it and stealing all the parts would definitely qualify.
All kinds of plots in there anyways.
And all these kinds of magics mostly get used for making plot difficulties, making monsters. But surely if people had them available they'd make much more complicated options too. Like, someone you love is dying? Find them a new body! Not just for evil people any more!
Or that Paragon spell - obviously the coolest guy in the world wouldn't be dying. And equally obviously he could come up with all the really cool medical innovations he needed. And, okay, theres the teensy tiny monster problem, and the fact the spell is unstable according to Adam, but the good things Jonathan did actually did outlast the spell, to some extent, so why not try to use that for a last ditch boost? Its a bit like the s4 combine the scoobies spell, only much bigger, and (important thing) without the consent of the participants. Morally dubious on that count, of course, but if it could save the world? Or save lives? Or save a life, the one that really matters?
Lots of ways to do stuff.
Of course the stuff I actually need to do is *sleep*, but to some part of my brain, this is obviously more important.