About Eve
Okay, so here's the thing: Eve was one of the very first fics I wrote.  (There was this other thing called 'The Maker,' which is pretty much embarrassing to remember-- I don't even have it on this site, the only place it exists is the Fire and Ice Archive.) 

I started writing, like many others, because I felt like I'd read everything out there.  I had this paralyzing fear of trying to write slash, or anything NC-17 at all, so I started writing Eve. 

I love Eve; it's fun to write, fun to toy with, fun to plan... etc.  But I got pretty discouraged a while ago (I used to post a chapter a week, now I post a chapter a month.)  See, I was reading people's journals and rants-- something I'd never done before-- and I discovered that there's a name for the kind of characterI was writing: MARY SUE.

Now, I don't think Eve's as guilty as some characters out there, but she's definetly a Mary Sue, hate to admit it.  She's smart, and beautiful, and everyone's interested in her, one way or another.

But I must defend her!  (Image of me as Power Girl from 'Killed by Death')

So-- here's where Eve came from:
I had this image of a girl who used to be incredibly beautiful, but is now all mangled and covered in hideous scars-- the kind of person small children have nightmares about after passing them on the street.  Anyway, I had an image of this person angrily confronting Angel in front of Gunn and Wesley and Cordelia circa 'Reunion.'  The AI team realizes that Angel gave the girl these scars when he was most recently soulless.  The topper is the huge letters burnt into her side which spell 'Angelus'.  I just wanted the group to be really afraid of this unravelling guy they were all so loyal to.
I thought of Eve as sort of the Forrest Gump of the Buffyverse.  She gets to meet everyone, and be involved with everything, without ever really being part of it.  Also, she's responsible for a lot of little things that go unexplained-- like, What does Spike eat when he can't go hunting?  What happened to that icky dog?  You get the idea. 
Part of the point of Eve is that she's really very pathetic.  Yes, she's in a bad situation, but she can escape any time.  No one's gonna help her because they don't understand why she won't help herself.  She comes from an abusive background-- this girl isn't used to affection that isn't accompanied by violence.  So no matter how strong she is, in the end, she's doomed.
The fun of Eve is that I get to beat her up any time I'm cranky.  I try to see if I can get every character on the show to hurt her in some way.  Right now I've just finished 'Passion,' and Giles officially gets the award for hurting her worst because he set her on fire (accidentally).  Spike and Angel and Druscilla have hurt her in the more conventional master/slave, vampire/minion ways.  Buffy's hit her at least once, Xander did the love spell... I'm still working on the others.
My point is that although this is a bit of a Mary Sue fic, it's a serious story.  It's about learned helplessness, twisted loyalties, love, betrayal, and all those other things that make 'Buffy' such an amazing show.  Of course, I'm no Joss Whedon, but that's what this series means to me.
Here are some Mary Sue commentary things.  Most of the ones I found before were just critical, but a lot of these are more even-handed.  I'll put up links to more as I re-find them.  Click where it says click to see what people have to say about Mary Sue, then click 'back' buttons and check out the sites these essays came from.
Big Mary Sue sin: pairing her off with whoever.  Angel is my favorite fantasy (closely followed by Xander), and I admit Eve was getting dangerously close to him in "Ted."  I have a plan for this series, but it's loose, so I have plenty of time to change details and screw the whole thing up.  Sometimes that's exciting-- Willow's crushiness in "Phases" was my attempt to include her in this series more, and I really liked the way that turned out, especially considering Willow's impending lesbianism (I'm not really a Willow fan, which is why she plays such an insignificant role in most of my fic, but I really wanted this series to mirror the show as much as possible.)  On topic-- I saw what was happening with Eve/Angel and squashed it as quickly asa possible.  Aside from inserting Eve into a few scenes, I don't want to change canon at all, just add to it, so I didn't want to mess with the Angel/Buffy romance.  I think it is realistic to be attracted to other people, even when you're in love, so what those eps ended up like is okay with me.  Also, Angel's attraction gives a small motive for his later excessive cruelty (and Eve *is* supposed to be startlingly beautiful, kind of a plot point...)
One thing I can say about Eve-- I didn't spend a month choosing her name.  It was just the first thing (no punning) I thought of that didn't relate to me or anyone I know.
As for Eve/Spike, it's not supposed to be romantic, it's supposed to be abusive.  They have a closeness that is real, but I think Spike loves Drusilla and could never feel for Eve like that (he does tend to like women who can kick his ass-- Eve doesn't fall into that category).  I'm trying (don't know about my success) to show that Spike and Dru are both compelled by Eve's darkness-- this is what makes Spike want to turn her; he sees vampiric potential in her.  I have played up their relationship in the last few chapters before the end of season 2 because it's going to be important in season 3 and because this was what the readers have said they liked the most.  I have pretty big plans for the dynamic between those two for season four (yes, I've planned that far ahead, yes, I will get there eventually.
It seems pretty standard for fanfic writers to start out with a Mary Sue fic, but most writers look back on that with embarrassment and move on.  So why do I keep writing this thing of questionable taste?  I just like it dammit, and I'm annoyed by my own defensiveness on this topic, so I'm going to shut up now.
For anyone still reading: I am in the middle of mid-terms, and I admit that knowing exactly what's going to happen in the next four or five chapters is making me less enthusiastic about writing them.  Hopefully when the tests are all taken, I'll be able to get these next eps out so I can write the ones I'm really bouncing around about.
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