Pride & Prejudice with Buffyverse characters (my personal version)

[lookingforoctober]

So I clicked on a Spander fanfic version of P&P because hey, I like P&P, I wanted to read some Spander to see if I liked it, and this story had won an award. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a story that was not my cup of tea, but one of the casting decisions really got me thinking.

At first when I saw that Lydia was Buffy (or Buffy was Lydia) I was completely baffled, because Lydia's main trait is irresponsibility, and Buffy...really isn't, but then it occurred to me that Buffy could be cleverly using all that chasing after soldiers and constant trips to Meryton as cover for being the Slayer. Because Mrs. Bennet is hardly going to approve of killing vampires, but she clearly does approve of chasing after guys.

So, keeping Lydia = Buffy, what to do about the rest of the characters? First of all, there's really no way that Darcy can be Spike in my version. Which is sad, because I wanted to make the Netherfield crowd the Fanged Four, but Darcy is reserved and Spike isn't. Spike is also not Bingley, Spike's got way too much sarcasm in his makeup, and also he doesn't give up when he falls in love. So I decided to make Angel Darcy (brooding, yes, tall, yes, has friends that think a lot of him, yes), and cast Netherfield from Angel the tv show.

Darcy = Angel
Bingley = Gunn
Caroline = Darla
Mrs. Hurst = Gunn's sister

Gunn, I think, has some of the same openness as Bingley (though admittedly without some of the innocence). I thought about Lorne, since he's more of a friend to Angel than Gunn is, but Lorne doesn't appear to be open to romance. Lorne, in fact, is usually a rather self-contained character. And Wesley is too...he lives inside of himself in a way I don't think Bingley does.

Caroline could also be Cordelia, but I didn't think that was fair to the Cordelia of Angel. It would have to be the Cordelia of Buffy. Darla, however, pretty much always works as Caroline, at least in intent, though she's a bit more straightforward in methods.

Mrs. Hurst got cast to fit the plot, because Mrs. Hurst doesn't get much development, so anyone can be stuck in.

Now for Longbourn:

Mr. Bennet = that principal that got eaten by something
Mrs. Bennet = Principal Snyder
Jane = Tara
Lizzie = Cordelia
Mary = Anya
Kitty = Willow
Lydia = Buffy

I really like my Mr. & Mrs. Bennet casting :) Tara is the only character with anything like Jane's sweetness. Cordelia is the Cordelia of Angel, and I think she works as Lizzie because Lizzie has a certain degree of say it like it is but with the compassion and understanding that Cordelia develops. Xander wouldn't be bad here either, but he's a bit on the conventional side. Lizzie isn't quite conventional, though she lives in her world she's also more amused by it than Xander is. If Buffy wasn't already Lydia, she could go here too on personality (though I'm pretty sure it would mess up the plot if Buffy killed Darla the first time Lizzie went to Netherfield). Anya and Mary both have a habit of displaying their thoughts/talents in a way that others don't always find tasteful. Poor Willow. She doesn't want to be a sidekick, and yet, there she goes, the Kitty to Buffy's Lydia.

Mr. Collins = Jonathan
Wickham = Spike
Georgiana Darcy = Drusilla
Colonel Fitzwilliam = Xander
Lady Catherine = Illyria
Charlotte = Dawn
Mr. Gardiner = Giles
Mrs. Gardiner = Joyce

I'm sort of sorry about putting Jonathan in as Collins, but...oh well, I think it works. Spike is Wickham because Wickham just wants to have fun. Dru was pretty obvious for the shy girl who got taken advantage of (almost got taken advantage of in the original, but in this story, Dru is a vampire, so there's no almost). Xander is good natured and the sort of person people tend to get along with. Tell me, would you want to be in a drawing room with Illyria staring at you like Lady Catherine de Bourgh? I think Dawn is pretty practical and accepts the hand she's dealt (not that she's always happy with it), like Charlotte. And Giles and Joyce get to be the somewhat more successful of the older generation, who aren't an embarrassment.

(Yes, I completely ignored shipping. Let's see, we have Gunn and Tara, hmm. Angel and Cordelia, nice. Buffy and Spike :) Jonathan and Dawn, ummmmmmm, not ideal. Oh, and Spike turned Dru instead of the other way around.)

As for the plot, obviously Darla/Caroline is the prime mover. She's a vampire, and she and Gunn's sister are using Gunn/Bingley (who isn't a vampire, but who can't kill them because of reasons) as cover as they move into a new neighborhood and start preying on the people there. Angel is newly ensouled, and is pulled between Gunn (who wants him to join forces and stop the slaughter) and Darla and Gunn's sister, who are trying to corrupt him.

Meanwhile, Angel meets Cordelia and is rude to her. She is not impressed.

Buffy/Lydia kills lots of soldiers who Darla and Gunn's sister have turned into vampires.

More things happen. In the end, there is a big showdown with the fate of the world at stake, and then everyone gets married.

Comments

[rahirah]

OK, now that is a fusion I would read the hell out of.

[lookingforoctober]

It's a really fun and interesting way of looking at the characters.