Dawn Summers/Ethan Rayne
Oct. 30th, 2005 05:28 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
alixtii.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ship_manifestoTitle: To Give Birth to a Dancing Star
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing: Dawn Summers/Ethan Rayne
Spoilers: All of Buffy and Angel up to "The Girl in Question."
The Chaos Mage
Ethan Rayne is British. Of his origins, that’s about all we can say with absolutely certainty. When he was younger, however, he hung in a group of friends in London which included other rebelling British young adults as Philip Henry, Thomas Sutcliffe, Deidre Page, somebody named Randall, and Rupert Giles. That last name is important (although if you are reading this you probably already knew that), because a lot of people in fandom believe that Ethan and Rupert were lovers during this period.
We know this circle of friends practiced magicks (God, I hate that word—curse you, Aleister Crowley!). “Small stuff, for pleasure or gain,” as Giles described it. But then he and Ethan “discovered something a little bigger” (“The Dark Age”). They would periodically undergo temporary possession by the demon Eghon in order to imbue themselves with “a euphoric feeling of power.” They would put one of their circle “into a deep sleep and the others would summon him. It was an extraordinary high.” One time, however, something went wrong, the proper rituals weren’t observed, and they lost control of the demon. The possession became permanent. Eyghon was born from within Randall. They exorcised the demon from Randall, but in so doing killed him.
Fast forward twenty years. Rupert Giles is a member of the Council of Watchers, his sacred duty to be to guide his teenaged charge Buffy Summers in her fight against the evil forces of darkness which plague the Mouth of Hell: Sunnydale, California. The other members of the circle are likewise scattered, each presumably holding their own jobs. And Ethan? He has become a worshipper of the primal force of chaos—of entropy and randomness and sheer pandemonium.
Ethan arrived in Sunnydale for the first time in the October of 1997, when he opened a costume shop with the characteristically unsubtle name “Ethan’s.” On Hallowe’en night, he invoked the two-faced god Janus to transform all the young trick-or-treaters wearing his costumes into the costumes themselves, i.e. those who dressed up as vampires became vampires, those dressed up as werewolves became werewolves, etc. Luckily for Sunnydale, Giles was able to reverse Ethan’s spell when he found the chaos mage in his costume shop and broke the statue of Janus that Ethan had used to cast the spell. Giles told Ethan to leave Sunnydale and to never come back.
Ethan being Ethan, he promptly stayed put, especially as his lease was good until the end of the month (of November, presumably). During that time, the spectre of Eyghon raised his ugly head—or more accurately, raised the head of Thomas Sutcliffe’s rotting corpse. The demon could not retain its form, however, with the demonic energy soon disintegrating its host, and so it passed on to Deidre Page to continue living. Philip Henry, fearing the fate which laid ahead of him, flew Britain to take refuge from Giles in Sunnydale. Eyghon—still possessing Deidre’s body—managed to catch up with Philip just before he could contact Giles, and the demon’s essence passed to its next victim. Two targets remained: Rupert Giles and Ethan Rayne.
Buffy, with the help of her vampire boyfriend Angel, managed to find a way to defeat Eyghon, saving the lives of both Rupert and Ethan. During the final altercation, however, Ethan extricated himself from the situation and left Sunnydale. For about a year. He returned almost exactly a year later, working as a subcontractor for Sunnydale’s corrupt mayor. This time he managed a factory producing enchanted chocolate bars which regressed adults back to the maturity level of teenagers. (For a chaos mage, he seems to be quite a capitalist.) Buffy managed to foil this piece of mischief on his part as well, but once again he managed to escape.
Ethan’s final canonical trip to Sunnydale was in January of 2000 when Ethan transformed Giles into a Fyarl demon. Once this situation was taken care of, he was taken into custody by the U.S. military and shipped to a secret detention facility in the Nevada desert. He hasn’t been seen since.
The Key
The Key, insofar as it is understood, is a powerful nexus of energy which has existed for thousands of years. According to Giles’ notes:
And so Dawn Summers entered the Buffyverse. The memories of all involved were altered so that they remembered Dawn as always existing—including, presumably, the events involving Ethan outlined above. The exact content of these memories is of course not know, and as such functions as a fertile ground for fanfic. (You might want trying my “Monk-Made Memories” collection archived at Fanfiction.net.)
The hellgod Glorificus—the “Glory” of Giles’ notes—searched high and low for her Key, which she intended to use to open up the dimensional barriers between universes and travel home to her home dimension from which she had been expelled. In the process of researching Glory and her motives, it was finally realized that Dawn was the Key, and not really Buffy’s sister. At first Buffy tried to keep this fact a secret from everybody, including, but Dawn finally found out when she broke into the Magic Shop with Spike and read Giles’ notes. In shock, Dawn burnt her diaries and slit her wrists.
Buffy went through much trouble to keep Glorificus from finding out Dawn’s identity and, once Glory did find out, in keeping Dawn from the hellgod. Glorificus eventually did get hold of Dawn, however, and succeeding in using the Key’s blood to open the transdimensional portal. While Dawn was willing to sacrifice her life to close the portal, Buffy did so instead.
Dawn was raised by Willow and Tara that summer, her mother having died the previous year, but at the end of the summer Buffy was resurrected by the Scoobies (sans Spike, Dawn, and Giles). Although conflicted, Buffy resumed her Slaying duties and her position as the head of the Summers household. However, she was so upset by being ripped out of Heaven she didn’t notice the cries for attention Dawn was putting out, including a reckless run-in with vampire boys on All Hallows Eve and constant shoplifting from neighborhood stores, including the Magic Box. Dawn’s sense of neglect eventually became so developed as to drive her to (inadvertently) express a wish to the vengeance demon Halfrek: “I wish I could just make them stop. Going away” (“Older and Far Away”).
Halfrek cursed the attendants of Buffy’s birthday party, not allowing them to leave the Summers residence:
Of course, since Halfrek became trapped within her own curse, she was ultimately forced to undo it. But the turmoil she saw within Dawn was real.
After Willow was stopped from destroying the world following the death of Tara, however, Buffy had something of an epiphany:
Buffy carried out this promise to at least some degree, giving Dawn rudimentary slaying lessons. The sudden reappearance of the First Evil and the arrival of the Potentials, however, quickly diverted Buffy’s attention. Dawn assisted the Scoobies, doing much of the research in the absence of Giles. Having her house suddenly invaded by a slew of teenaged girls, each with the possibility of a sacred destiny, Dawn found herself left out and unneeded.
Until she found out that she, herself, was a potential Slayer. Characteristically troubled by this news, Dawn slipped out of her room, where she found her classmate Amanda and with her attempted to slay a vampire found in Sunnydale High. In the process, however, it was revealed that it was Amanda, not Dawn, who was the true potential Slayer.
As the final battle against the First approached, Buffy asked Xander to take Dawn away from Sunnydale to keep her safe. Xander had to chloroform Dawn to accomplish this end, after a light-hearted conversation notable mainly for revealing the final fate of Miss Kitty Fantastico. When Dawn awoke, she was in a car headed away from Sunnydale.
Proving ever resourceful, Dawn promptly tasered Xander and, presumably, drove the car back to Sunnydale herself, where both she and Xander took part in the final battle against the First Evil.
Based on the most recent data in canon (Angel, “The Girl in Question”) Dawn is currently living with her sister in Rome, Italy.
The Case in Canon
Dawn/Ethan in the Buffyverse is a unique case.* While they have never met onscreen (Ethan’s last episode is in the season before Michelle Trachtenberg joined the cast), it is actually quite likely that the two did meet in the Scoobies’ retconned memories. Of course, Dawn would have been 14 years or younger, so the degree to which there would have been any ‘shippy subtext is up for debate.
So while these two have a history, the precise nature of that history can be anything a fanfic writer wants it to be. Which, of course, is a wonderful position for the fanfic writer.
*Actually, it’s not all that unique after all. Dawn/Wesley--another great 'ship, for much of the same reasons--is in the same boat, for example.
The Case in Theory
So why do Dawn and Ethan work together? The fact of the matter is that both of these characters actually have a good deal in common. They share an interest in the study of magic. They both rebel against authority. They both have histories of psychological instability and a taste for danger. They’re both wounded souls who need someone able to understand them. They need someone to help them heal. They can do this for each other. While it’s not a ship that one would think of at first, once suggested it makes perfect sense: these two characters are perfect for each other. If you want to show these characters maturing, this is a good ship to do so.
On the other hand, Dawn and Ethan bring out the chaotic streak in each other, which of course makes for good fiction. Nothing is out of bounds with this ship; even the most extreme kinks are solidly in character for the both of them. The fanfiuc writer is under no obligation to make the Dawn/Ethan relationship in the least healthy: it’s just as much fun to see these two dysfunctional characters spiraling out of control.
And the biggest obstacle to a relation between the two, their age difference, is really no obstacle at all. Ethan would never let something as quotidian as Dawn’s jailbait status get in the way of having a good time, and Dawn’s own self-destructive behavior makes it perfectly believable she’d involve herself in a relationship with the older chaos mage.
The Case in Fandom
Ethan/Dawn has an established position in Buffy fandom. Dawn/Ethan is more or less a recognized ‘ship, due perhaps to the relatively rarity of males on Buffy. Most Ethan and Dawn comms list Ethan/Dawn under their interests. You might think it’s strange, but it’s true: Ethan/Dawn has arrived.
This is the real highlight of the ‘ship: the truly wonderful fanfiction that has been written using these two characters.
Anywhere But Here, by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
harriet_spy. This is technically gen, but it’s also the fic that sold me on the Ethan/Dawn ship. Ethan helps Dawn run away and helps her master Chaos, while she learns some lessons that can only be learned the hard way.
Old as Dirt and Just as Filthy, bywickedfox. Dawn and Ethan run into each other in the Bronze, and what is supposed to be a quick shag turns into a life lesson. Both characters are perfectly in character.
Roman Diversion, byzandra_x. Ethan is running a tea shop in Italy, and acquires Dawn Summers as a regular customer.
Five Riffs on the Theme of Intimacy in the Jossverse, bykitsune76. The third ficlet is Dawn/Ethan, with each character constantly trying to get the better of the other. My main complaint is that the ficlet is too short, at just under 350 words.
Fenrisulfr, byantennapedia. Dawn gets a job working at Ethan's bookstore in L.A., and the pair begins to pursue an agenda all their own.
I haven’t checked it out, by I hear Virtual Lunatics Virtual Season Eight has an Ethan/Dawn subplot.
And last but not least, Divine Interventions, byalixtii, i.e. me, since I didn’t get to rec myself last time I wrote one of these (and that’s the entire point of writing a ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ship_manifesto essay, nyet?). Dawn breaks Ethan out of the Initiative detention facility, then teams up with Cordy and Amy Madison to protect Willow from a resurrected Rack and the worshippers of the dark god Osiris. Suddenly finding herself in command of a Slayer army, Dawn must harness the darkness within herself to send these young girls into battle. Ethan, ahem, helps. And What the Caged Bird Feels revisits the pair over a decade after Divine Interventions.
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing: Dawn Summers/Ethan Rayne
Spoilers: All of Buffy and Angel up to "The Girl in Question."
The Chaos Mage
Ethan Rayne is British. Of his origins, that’s about all we can say with absolutely certainty. When he was younger, however, he hung in a group of friends in London which included other rebelling British young adults as Philip Henry, Thomas Sutcliffe, Deidre Page, somebody named Randall, and Rupert Giles. That last name is important (although if you are reading this you probably already knew that), because a lot of people in fandom believe that Ethan and Rupert were lovers during this period.
We know this circle of friends practiced magicks (God, I hate that word—curse you, Aleister Crowley!). “Small stuff, for pleasure or gain,” as Giles described it. But then he and Ethan “discovered something a little bigger” (“The Dark Age”). They would periodically undergo temporary possession by the demon Eghon in order to imbue themselves with “a euphoric feeling of power.” They would put one of their circle “into a deep sleep and the others would summon him. It was an extraordinary high.” One time, however, something went wrong, the proper rituals weren’t observed, and they lost control of the demon. The possession became permanent. Eyghon was born from within Randall. They exorcised the demon from Randall, but in so doing killed him.
Fast forward twenty years. Rupert Giles is a member of the Council of Watchers, his sacred duty to be to guide his teenaged charge Buffy Summers in her fight against the evil forces of darkness which plague the Mouth of Hell: Sunnydale, California. The other members of the circle are likewise scattered, each presumably holding their own jobs. And Ethan? He has become a worshipper of the primal force of chaos—of entropy and randomness and sheer pandemonium.
Ethan arrived in Sunnydale for the first time in the October of 1997, when he opened a costume shop with the characteristically unsubtle name “Ethan’s.” On Hallowe’en night, he invoked the two-faced god Janus to transform all the young trick-or-treaters wearing his costumes into the costumes themselves, i.e. those who dressed up as vampires became vampires, those dressed up as werewolves became werewolves, etc. Luckily for Sunnydale, Giles was able to reverse Ethan’s spell when he found the chaos mage in his costume shop and broke the statue of Janus that Ethan had used to cast the spell. Giles told Ethan to leave Sunnydale and to never come back.
Ethan being Ethan, he promptly stayed put, especially as his lease was good until the end of the month (of November, presumably). During that time, the spectre of Eyghon raised his ugly head—or more accurately, raised the head of Thomas Sutcliffe’s rotting corpse. The demon could not retain its form, however, with the demonic energy soon disintegrating its host, and so it passed on to Deidre Page to continue living. Philip Henry, fearing the fate which laid ahead of him, flew Britain to take refuge from Giles in Sunnydale. Eyghon—still possessing Deidre’s body—managed to catch up with Philip just before he could contact Giles, and the demon’s essence passed to its next victim. Two targets remained: Rupert Giles and Ethan Rayne.
Buffy, with the help of her vampire boyfriend Angel, managed to find a way to defeat Eyghon, saving the lives of both Rupert and Ethan. During the final altercation, however, Ethan extricated himself from the situation and left Sunnydale. For about a year. He returned almost exactly a year later, working as a subcontractor for Sunnydale’s corrupt mayor. This time he managed a factory producing enchanted chocolate bars which regressed adults back to the maturity level of teenagers. (For a chaos mage, he seems to be quite a capitalist.) Buffy managed to foil this piece of mischief on his part as well, but once again he managed to escape.
Ethan’s final canonical trip to Sunnydale was in January of 2000 when Ethan transformed Giles into a Fyarl demon. Once this situation was taken care of, he was taken into custody by the U.S. military and shipped to a secret detention facility in the Nevada desert. He hasn’t been seen since.
The Key
The Key, insofar as it is understood, is a powerful nexus of energy which has existed for thousands of years. According to Giles’ notes:
The Key is not directly described in any known literature, but all research indicates an energy matrix vibrating at a dimensional frequency beyond normal human perception. Only those outside reality can see the Key's true nature. The key is also susceptible to necromanced animal detection, particularly those of canine or serpent construct. The monks possessed the ability to transform energy, bend reality. They started work. But the Council has suggested to us that they were interrupted, presumably by Glory. They obviously did manage to accomplish the task. They had to be certain the Slayer would protect it with her life. So they sent the key to her in human form. In the form of a sister. (“Blood Ties”)
And so Dawn Summers entered the Buffyverse. The memories of all involved were altered so that they remembered Dawn as always existing—including, presumably, the events involving Ethan outlined above. The exact content of these memories is of course not know, and as such functions as a fertile ground for fanfic. (You might want trying my “Monk-Made Memories” collection archived at Fanfiction.net.)
The hellgod Glorificus—the “Glory” of Giles’ notes—searched high and low for her Key, which she intended to use to open up the dimensional barriers between universes and travel home to her home dimension from which she had been expelled. In the process of researching Glory and her motives, it was finally realized that Dawn was the Key, and not really Buffy’s sister. At first Buffy tried to keep this fact a secret from everybody, including, but Dawn finally found out when she broke into the Magic Shop with Spike and read Giles’ notes. In shock, Dawn burnt her diaries and slit her wrists.
Buffy went through much trouble to keep Glorificus from finding out Dawn’s identity and, once Glory did find out, in keeping Dawn from the hellgod. Glorificus eventually did get hold of Dawn, however, and succeeding in using the Key’s blood to open the transdimensional portal. While Dawn was willing to sacrifice her life to close the portal, Buffy did so instead.
Dawn was raised by Willow and Tara that summer, her mother having died the previous year, but at the end of the summer Buffy was resurrected by the Scoobies (sans Spike, Dawn, and Giles). Although conflicted, Buffy resumed her Slaying duties and her position as the head of the Summers household. However, she was so upset by being ripped out of Heaven she didn’t notice the cries for attention Dawn was putting out, including a reckless run-in with vampire boys on All Hallows Eve and constant shoplifting from neighborhood stores, including the Magic Box. Dawn’s sense of neglect eventually became so developed as to drive her to (inadvertently) express a wish to the vengeance demon Halfrek: “I wish I could just make them stop. Going away” (“Older and Far Away”).
Halfrek cursed the attendants of Buffy’s birthday party, not allowing them to leave the Summers residence:
[T]his girl was in pain and none of you could hear it. I could hear her crying out everywhere I went in this town. It was unbearable. And none of you knew. You people deserve to be cursed. Enjoy your time together. From now on, all you have is time. Time and each other. Good luck! (“Older and Far Away”)
Of course, since Halfrek became trapped within her own curse, she was ultimately forced to undo it. But the turmoil she saw within Dawn was real.
After Willow was stopped from destroying the world following the death of Tara, however, Buffy had something of an epiphany:
I want to see you grow up. The woman you're gonna become. Because she's gonna be beautiful. And she's gonna be powerful. I got it so wrong. I don't want to protect you from the world. I want to show it to you. There's so much that I wanna to show you. (“Grave”)
Buffy carried out this promise to at least some degree, giving Dawn rudimentary slaying lessons. The sudden reappearance of the First Evil and the arrival of the Potentials, however, quickly diverted Buffy’s attention. Dawn assisted the Scoobies, doing much of the research in the absence of Giles. Having her house suddenly invaded by a slew of teenaged girls, each with the possibility of a sacred destiny, Dawn found herself left out and unneeded.
Until she found out that she, herself, was a potential Slayer. Characteristically troubled by this news, Dawn slipped out of her room, where she found her classmate Amanda and with her attempted to slay a vampire found in Sunnydale High. In the process, however, it was revealed that it was Amanda, not Dawn, who was the true potential Slayer.
As the final battle against the First approached, Buffy asked Xander to take Dawn away from Sunnydale to keep her safe. Xander had to chloroform Dawn to accomplish this end, after a light-hearted conversation notable mainly for revealing the final fate of Miss Kitty Fantastico. When Dawn awoke, she was in a car headed away from Sunnydale.
Proving ever resourceful, Dawn promptly tasered Xander and, presumably, drove the car back to Sunnydale herself, where both she and Xander took part in the final battle against the First Evil.
Based on the most recent data in canon (Angel, “The Girl in Question”) Dawn is currently living with her sister in Rome, Italy.
The Case in Canon
Dawn/Ethan in the Buffyverse is a unique case.* While they have never met onscreen (Ethan’s last episode is in the season before Michelle Trachtenberg joined the cast), it is actually quite likely that the two did meet in the Scoobies’ retconned memories. Of course, Dawn would have been 14 years or younger, so the degree to which there would have been any ‘shippy subtext is up for debate.
So while these two have a history, the precise nature of that history can be anything a fanfic writer wants it to be. Which, of course, is a wonderful position for the fanfic writer.
*Actually, it’s not all that unique after all. Dawn/Wesley--another great 'ship, for much of the same reasons--is in the same boat, for example.
The Case in Theory
So why do Dawn and Ethan work together? The fact of the matter is that both of these characters actually have a good deal in common. They share an interest in the study of magic. They both rebel against authority. They both have histories of psychological instability and a taste for danger. They’re both wounded souls who need someone able to understand them. They need someone to help them heal. They can do this for each other. While it’s not a ship that one would think of at first, once suggested it makes perfect sense: these two characters are perfect for each other. If you want to show these characters maturing, this is a good ship to do so.
On the other hand, Dawn and Ethan bring out the chaotic streak in each other, which of course makes for good fiction. Nothing is out of bounds with this ship; even the most extreme kinks are solidly in character for the both of them. The fanfiuc writer is under no obligation to make the Dawn/Ethan relationship in the least healthy: it’s just as much fun to see these two dysfunctional characters spiraling out of control.
And the biggest obstacle to a relation between the two, their age difference, is really no obstacle at all. Ethan would never let something as quotidian as Dawn’s jailbait status get in the way of having a good time, and Dawn’s own self-destructive behavior makes it perfectly believable she’d involve herself in a relationship with the older chaos mage.
The Case in Fandom
Ethan/Dawn has an established position in Buffy fandom. Dawn/Ethan is more or less a recognized ‘ship, due perhaps to the relatively rarity of males on Buffy. Most Ethan and Dawn comms list Ethan/Dawn under their interests. You might think it’s strange, but it’s true: Ethan/Dawn has arrived.
This is the real highlight of the ‘ship: the truly wonderful fanfiction that has been written using these two characters.
Anywhere But Here, by
harriet_spy. This is technically gen, but it’s also the fic that sold me on the Ethan/Dawn ship. Ethan helps Dawn run away and helps her master Chaos, while she learns some lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Old as Dirt and Just as Filthy, by
wickedfox. Dawn and Ethan run into each other in the Bronze, and what is supposed to be a quick shag turns into a life lesson. Both characters are perfectly in character.Roman Diversion, by
zandra_x. Ethan is running a tea shop in Italy, and acquires Dawn Summers as a regular customer.Five Riffs on the Theme of Intimacy in the Jossverse, by
kitsune76. The third ficlet is Dawn/Ethan, with each character constantly trying to get the better of the other. My main complaint is that the ficlet is too short, at just under 350 words.Fenrisulfr, by
antennapedia. Dawn gets a job working at Ethan's bookstore in L.A., and the pair begins to pursue an agenda all their own.I haven’t checked it out, by I hear Virtual Lunatics Virtual Season Eight has an Ethan/Dawn subplot.
And last but not least, Divine Interventions, by
alixtii, i.e. me, since I didn’t get to rec myself last time I wrote one of these (and that’s the entire point of writing a ship_manifesto essay, nyet?). Dawn breaks Ethan out of the Initiative detention facility, then teams up with Cordy and Amy Madison to protect Willow from a resurrected Rack and the worshippers of the dark god Osiris. Suddenly finding herself in command of a Slayer army, Dawn must harness the darkness within herself to send these young girls into battle. Ethan, ahem, helps. And What the Caged Bird Feels revisits the pair over a decade after Divine Interventions.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-10-31 01:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-31 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-31 07:31 am (UTC)Gina
no subject
Date: 2005-10-31 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-01 12:14 pm (UTC)I can see the Ethan/Dawn dynamics working on a friendship level but also on a romantic one, because Ethan is a character I can pair up with anyone.
Of course Giles/Ethan is kind of canon, my OTP (with Spuffy) and the 'ship that works best IMO, but Ethan/Joyce/Giles, Ethan/Willow or Ethan/Buffy worked very well in various fanfictions I have read.
I'll definitely read E/D...
Thanks for that clarification.
Chani
no subject
Date: 2006-07-28 12:14 am (UTC):D