Stronger than Death

[lookingforoctober]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8739733/1/Stronger-than-Death

That was fun.

I find that I'm completely unwilling to label my story, which is primarily about William and his mother (with a side of Spike and Buffy) as being about "Spike's mom" as they seem to want me to do at fanfiction.net. Her name is Anne Pratt (though I don't think "Anne" is actually mentioned except in the shooting script and Pratt is a very silly last name, is that comics canon?) but I'd settle for "Spike's mum" if I had to. "William's mother" would be much better, but I suppose that's a bit of a stretch in terms of the label that other people would prefer.

I know, I'm being a bit ridiculous, but oh well. It's now a story about William and Spike.

Comments

[rahirah]

Spike's last name was first given as Pratt in Peter David's IDW comic SPIKE: OLD TIMES (David's said it was a tribute to Boris Karloff, whose real name was William Henry Pratt.) That comic wasn't canon, but then Brian Lynch used it in a couple of his IDW Spike comics, and from there it sort of percolated through the IDW line until the final Spike mini-series Lynch did which tied into Spike's crossover into S8. I've heard vague rumors that Joss approved it, but I've never seen any definitive statement about it from him. So it's always possible that he'll announce that Spike's last name is really Rumsbottom-Twickenham one day.

There was quite a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth about Pratt as a surname in Spuffy fandom when it first started getting traction, but I've always liked it because it's a good old ordinary English name, and exactly the sort of name Spike would be mildly embarrassed by and contrive to conceal for the next hundred years. *g*

Oh, and it's an awesome story, by the way. :)

[lookingforoctober]

I knew the comics canon was a bit complicated with a bunch of different series, but that's far more complicated than I imagined. I've only actually seen the official Buffy Season 8 & 9 comics, and heard about some of the other recent stuff, I didn't realize there were a bunch of unofficial comics too.

I'd suspect Joss might be a bit too busy to worry too much about Spike's last name at this point, though.

I can imagine. "William the Bloody Pratt" just makes me giggle every single time. Too appropriate sometimes. You have a point, but it's hard for me to take seriously as a name and not a joke.

Thank you!