| rdfs:comment | - The Price of the Wish is a Darker and Edgier Buffy the Vampire Slayer Peggy Sue with strong Lovecraftian elements. Cordelia, realising she is on the Hellmouth, thinks a few seconds longer before wishing for vengeance, and comes up with A Simple Plan: go back to the day Buffy first arrived in Sunnydale with eighteen months foreknowledge. With that advantage, and her superb people skills, she could easily make Xander suffer as she had suffered while gaining herself a golden reputation into the bargain. She would be feted as the saviour of the world; Xander and Willow reduced to cringing wretches, held in utter contempt by all, even each other. It was just a passing fancy, but she gave it voice, and so sprang an age-old trap.
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| abstract | - The Price of the Wish is a Darker and Edgier Buffy the Vampire Slayer Peggy Sue with strong Lovecraftian elements. Cordelia, realising she is on the Hellmouth, thinks a few seconds longer before wishing for vengeance, and comes up with A Simple Plan: go back to the day Buffy first arrived in Sunnydale with eighteen months foreknowledge. With that advantage, and her superb people skills, she could easily make Xander suffer as she had suffered while gaining herself a golden reputation into the bargain. She would be feted as the saviour of the world; Xander and Willow reduced to cringing wretches, held in utter contempt by all, even each other. It was just a passing fancy, but she gave it voice, and so sprang an age-old trap. At first all seemed well. Admittedly, Buffy suffered nightmare visions Xander had never bothered to tell her about, and it was disappointing she had been unable to save Jesse, but those were minor niggles, mere teething troubles. When Amy lost her hand, and Amber was burned alive, Cordelia struggled to convince herself that only bad luck and carelessness were to blame, but she could not fool herself for long. Some great evil had taken advantage of her wish to plunge all the world into darkness. Around the time she discovered what horrors lay festering under her cosy family home, a few days after several score undead demon lords descended upon Sunnydale, a few days before she saw severed heads piled high in the burning wreck of Jereseleum, Cordelia told Giles half the truth while Xander, by seeming chance, got the full story. When her mother was devoured, body and soul, despite Cordelia's best efforts to save her, she decided she had had enough. Setting aside all over concerns, she vowed to destroy the Ultimate Evil that had warped her wish at any cost. Giving Xander and Willow what they deserved would just have to wait. After that, It Got Worse, nor has the bottom been reached yet. All indications are that the long parade of horrors Cordelia has endured to date is but the first few rain drops of the coming storm. The night grows ever darker, and there can be no hope of dawn. However, it's not all gloom and doom. A unicorn gallops through the streets of Sunnydale, a glimpse of transcendental beauty no shadow can dim, while for those mere mortals caught in the crossfire life goes on. Even in the face of impending apocalypse, there is still time for laughter, and the joys of youth.
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