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Wanderer Notes
[Outdated] Willow's Character Arcs
Personality
1. Pre-Apotheosis innocence
2. Grief re: Rory (plus killing Alex)
3. Healing through found family (TFW)
4. Uncertainty re: identity issues
5. Plotting re: Sam
6. Committing to the plan/leaving TFW
7. Adjusting to Sam/Lucifer
8. Sam/Will/Lucifer begins
9. Hesitance re: the plan
10. Reaffirming* & enacting the plan
*Swayed by some action of either Raphael or Michael.
Power
1. innocent human
2. assumed Pagan (exploring power)
3. first hint that something's wrong
4. second hint that something's wrong
5. certainty that something's wrong
6. interest from Raphael & Lucifer
7. identity crisis climaxes
8. crisis resolved by accepting mystery
9. confidently using power
Will Timeline:
- personality #1+ power #1
- personality #2 + power #2
- personality #3 + power #3-5
- personality #4 + power #6-8
- personality #5
- personality #6
- personality #7
- personality #8
- personality #9
- personality #10 + power #9
August 10, 2014
Keys needs some rewriting/thinking. Will's a bit of a Sue still, and I'd like to break that out of her.
Willow is Alex's pet project (or so they all think, knowing nothing of the Keys), but Meg has to become involved in his plan for Willow to become involved in the larger plot. So, for Alex to accomplish his ultimate goal--that being Willow's apotheosis--he'll need access to a lost ritual that only Meg can get for him (it's in the same place where Lucifer had been storing the angel tablet). So they make a deal: Meg will get the ritual, Alex will make Will a goddess, and Willow will reopen the Cage. It doesn't quite work that way.
Misc. Supernatural Fic Notes
Characters
Willow, Rachel, Alex
Dean, Lisa, Ben, Jesse
Bobby, Jody
Castiel, Meg, Crowley
Sam, Lucifer, Adam, Michael
Raphael, Gabriel, Death, Chuck
Plotlines
Willow, Dean, Lisa, Ben, Jesse, Bobby, Jody, Castiel, Meg, & Crowley hunting together.
Willow, Lisa, Jody, & Meg hunting together to explore female friendship.
Jody & Bobby as surrogate parents to Willow & Dean with Willow as Jody's favorite child & Dean as Bobby's.
One Steve Limit & Meaningful Nicknames
One Steve Limit & Meaningful Nicknames
In Raven, First, and Whirlwind, there's an issue with Willow's name thanks to the One Steve Limit; with both London and Rosenberg running around, telling them apart might be difficult. Spike takes to calling Rosenberg "Red" and London "Raven"; another option is to have the girls referred to by their last names.
Drusilla, though, gives London a possible nickname when they first meet: Aurora. I may or may not have Willow assume this name while in the Buffyverse(s).
ETA: Rachel has been renamed Aurora, aka Rory. Frankly, I had forgotten this idea, but it actually still works out perfectly. Even better, in fact. At various points between Keys and Wanderer, Willow can be referred to as "an aurora" and "the defender of mankind" in order to foreshadow the reveal of Rory and Alex's actual relation to Will.
Raven and First Premises
Buffy #1: Eternal Night of the Vampires
Buffy #2: The First Evil
Raven and red upon their heads, destiny awakens. One girl is the Ender, while another is mistaken. & Cross of silver, ray of light, in Ender's hand will end the night.
Raven and First are the two BtVS installments of Wanderer. (Excluding the either non-canonical or post-canonical Whirlwind.) They take place after an alternate ending to season five, in which Dawn successfully completed the heroic sacrifice that Buffy prevented her from completing in canon. So in the story, we find the Scoobies trying to cope with Dawn's death, among other things. Buffy has officially quit her Slayer duties, and she's cut herself off from all the Scoobies who keep trying to bring things back to the way they were before Dawn. Giles in particular is appalled by Buffy's decision, and when gentle urges to return to Slaying (including praising Dawn's bravery and insisting they honor her sacrifice) get him nowhere, he becomes dismissive of Dawn and derisive of Buffy. The others agree to varying extents, save for the sole exception of Spike, who is 100% with Buffy (unlike, for example, Tara, who is understanding but disappointed). Buffy essentially retreats from the world, and when Giles and Xander make it clear that Spike isn't longer welcome, he joins her. Enter Willow London. She arrives in the Buffyverse at just the right moment to earn herself all the wrong attention from the Scoobies, and she becomes their number one candidate for "next über evil".
Willow to Spike: "Having a soul is highly overrated." (Spike wishes he had his soul back for Buffy's sake, but Willow feels he's fine without it. Her quote is a reference to her mistaken belief that if Alex had destroyed her soul in the Apotheosis ritual, Rachel would still be alive.)
Raven to Red: So... are you a good witch or a bad witch?
Drusilla swayed in front of her, eyes wide and staring. "Oh... Spike, you're riding an aurora!"
Speculation on the Master in Raven
In Raven, the Master is a possible candidate to be the driving force of the Eternal Night, taking on the role of Medlock. However, Willow R. should take the role of Scarlet. So while Wishverse!Master = Medlock, Wishverse!Willow = Scarlet, & Wishverse!Xander = Milnoose is a possibility, it makes more sense for megawitch!Willow to have a plotline similar to her canon season six plotline; she could fall in with a bad crowd, some warlock who makes her his unwitting (or merely conflicted? or knight templar?) Scarlet and uses her to bring about the Eternal Night. Perhaps the rock creature from Angel season four could play the Medlock?
Tiny Note on the First
The First can appear to Will as Sam, Adam, Lucifer, Michael, Dean, Bobby, Castiel, Meg, Crowley, Alex, Rachel, Harry Potter, and Lord Voldemort. It SHOULD appear to her as Sam, Alex, and Rachel. Maybe Voldy. First Rachel, methinks, to give her an idea that something's wrong--but also some degree of calm. Then Alex, to taunt her about what happened to Rachel. And then it should spend most of its time as Sam.
Note re: Choosing the Endgame Verse
In Trickster, Willow is horrified to learn that the Asgardians are not, in fact, immortal and only live about five thousand years. Part of deciding where to settle down will be deciding whether she's content to spend the rest of his life with him only to move on after his death or if she should return to Spike, who genuinely is immortal (but who comes with Buffy, who has a normal human lifespan).
Whirlwind Outline
Whirlwind is much more deadly than the canon version of season two.
First, Joyce is killed on Valentine's Day while Buffy and her friends are at the Bronze. Buffy moves in with Giles while the authorities try to get in contact with her dad.
Then, Jenny is killed around the same time and in roughly the same way as in canon.
Next, Willow and Xander are turned by either Angelus and Dru or Spike and Dru. It all but breaks Buffy, and she attempts to wipe out the Whirlwind once and for all. But it's clearly a suicide mission, and Buffy is turned by Angelus before dusting a single one of them.
So for senior year, Giles, Oz, and Cordelia are the only Scoobies left. They are joined by Kendra, Harmony, Jonathan, and Amy. (I was going to include Larry, but he should have graduated by this point.)
Note 1/16/15: Post-Whirlwind Idea
I gotta say, I really like the idea of writing some stories (maybe shorts, maybe full novels) about Willow's life in Buffyverse A, post-Whirlwind (Buffyverse B). The Buffy x Spike x Angel triad is already underway, and Willow has a freestanding invitation to return. She does.
I think it would be interesting to replicate the storyline of BtVS S8 and Angel S5, to the extent that I can. Let's give Wolfram & Hart to Angel and an organization of wannabe Scoobies to Buffy. Hell, maybe the story starts with the three trying to make a relationship work while Buffy and Spike are in Sunnydale and Angel's in L.A. (I enjoy the idea of Will shocking everyone by offering to move in with Angel, leading to some jealousy from Spike/Buffy and initial awkwardness before eventual bonding between Will and Angel.)
Avengers Adaptation Plot Point
In the scene where they find that S.H.I.E.L.D. is making WMDs, they also discovered that S.H.I.E.L.D. has plans for Willow. This serves as the answer to the question set up in the very first chapter, which is why is Shield interested in Willow in the first place? That answer is of course that they understand she's a lot more powerful than your run-of-the-mill superhero. They recognize that she keeps developing new powers, and they think that she might be as much of a potential weapon for them as the Tessaract.
Willow Using the Infinity Stones
At the end of the original The Avengers adaptation, Willow manages to save New York by harnessing the power of the Tesseract to reopen the Portal 2 wherever the fuck the chitauri came from. At the end of the adaptation of Age of Ultron, Willow tries to keep the meteor section of Sokovia from falling and wiping out all life on Earth. But as the rest of the Avengers can see from the Helicarrier, it doesn't look like she's strong enough to pull it off. They Wonder Very briefly what the difference is between this instance and what happened in New York, and Vision realizes that it's because when she was in New York, she had the power boost of harnessing an infinity stone. And just what's in Vision head? The mind Stone. So he flies off to go join her, and Willow uses the mind Stone to amplify her power and bring Sokovia slowly down into the ocean.
The Willow/Loki Ship
Willow's ongoing love for Loki really only makes sense if there's kind of the implication that they fell for each other during the Helicarrier scene. There needs to be the implication that A) she deeply, truly, completely understands him in that moment and B) he understands that she does. It needs to be an implied bond right from the get-go, with the romance in The Dark World being the thing that turns that bond into an actual relationship.
(Of course their later issue is that while Will understands him, he neither understands nor really trusts her. He expects her to eventually leave him--quite possibly for Thor--and so he pushes her to do so by faking his death during The Dark World. It's only during Ragnarok that he really begins to properly appreciate what she offered him, and by that point, she doesn't think she can offer it to him again, considering she actually has gotten together with Thor since his "death".)
He looked stricken. "I didn't know--"
"What, did you think it was just pity on my part? That I just wanted to screw around with a homicidal maniac for a while?" Will barked a laugh. "I loved you from the moment I touched your mind. And the very next thing you did was try to take control of mine! And then you had the gall to *die*, and I was about ready to burn the universe to the fucking ground because of it. What part of me didn't seem serious? What part of my love wasn't good enough for you? Because I thought you wanted me, too. Even if you didn't love me, I thought there was *something* between us. But apparently I meant so little to you that you thought faking your death was an acceptable way to get rid of me. So, yeah, Loki. *Fuck you.*"
If Frigga Lives...
So let's just go all-in on this whole "Frigga lives" thing. Will follows Kurse, who impales her when she tries to stop him from lowering Asgard's shields. Wounded and barely surviving, Will rushes to Jane and Frigga just in time to stop Kurse from killing the latter. Doing so, though, very nearly kills her.
When Odin grows more suspicious and militant after Frigga's (and Will's) near-death experience(s) and winds up more or less imprisoning Jane, Frigga gets in on the plot to free her.
Does it make sense for him to still imprison Jane, though? He really only does it in canon because he's kind of in a rage mourning Frigga. He keeps Jane under guard on Asgard because he wants revenge on the Dark Elves, and Jane's a guarantee that they'll be coming back. If Frigga doesn't die... Would he actually want Jane to stay, or would he try to send her ass back to Earth?
Maybe the real answer is to somehow circumvent the whole thing? If the TDW plot kind of sucks and all that I want to preserve of it is Loki faking a heroic sacrifice so he can steal Odin's throne, maybe that's all I should keep?
When Frigga realizes what Loki has done, she quietly disappears, heading to Earth to search for the real Odin.
Rambling about the Thor: The Dark World Adaptation
So, I have had yet another "what if?" thought that I think I've already talked myself out of using, but I'm going to record it here for the sake of the argument. Here's how it goes:
The reasoning behind Odin's imprisonment of Jane has been something of a sticking point for me in light of Frigga's survival in this fic. Namely, my issue is that he doesn't really have a reason to imprison her if he isn't blind with rage-grief. Now, I'm going to reexamine canon in a few minutes to double-check that he doesn't have a better reason for doing to Jane what he does, but for the sake of the argument, that's the assumption that I'm operating under.
The thought that has occurred to me is that if Odin is in the mindset of overreacting to what he perceives as threats... who are the two biggest threats to Asgard right now? (Among those humanoids who aren't already in prison, I mean...) Jane, who is possessed by the Aether and therefore wanted by the Dark Elf army, and Willow, who is possibly as powerful as the Aether all by herself and also literally in bed with a traitor who's already tried to steal the throne once. So if he's keeping Jane under lock and key... why not Willow, too? (The answer to that one would be obvious: he can't reasonably persecute Will for association with Loki if he only suspects that something's going on between them.)
Now, my answer to all of this is that, quite frankly, while it makes sense for Willow to get stowed away with Jane, I want Willow to be a part of the "let's rescue Jane" shenanigans. That's when her relationship with Loki comes out to Thor, Sif, and the lot, and I much prefer the reveal happening that way over Odin more or less outing her. And I suppose that if I find myself looking for an excuse as to why Odin wouldn't lock Willow away, I needn't look too far; I need only say that he doesn't imprison Willow with Jane specifically because Jane is powerless to stop him from imprisoning her, while Willow is decidedly not. Willow could easily bust her ass out of any cell short of one specifically guarded 24/7 by Odin himself, and who the fuck has time for that?
Further Thor: The Dark World Rambling
And now we have another issue. I had pretty much forgotten that Thor's recruitment of Loki in canon was intended to end with Loki being returned to his imprisonment, presumably for literal eternity. Obviously, that is a huge motivator for Loki to fake his death in canon; it's still a significant motivation in the fic, I'm sure. The question is how Will figures into all this.
So here's what I'm thinking. Obviously, Will isn't especially down with the idea of her lover being in prison for the rest of forever; she wants him set free, provided that he, you know, doesn't immediately try to kill them all or anything else particularly maniacal. Thor, on the other hand, isn't thrilled with the notion of permanently unleashing his homicidal little brother upon the world; as he says in canon, he no longer holds out hope that Loki's anything but a villain at this point. Perhaps the compromise can simply be that Loki's freedom during the Convergence will be a test; if he proves that he is in any way reformed, Thor will allow him to leave with Willow if that's what she really wants.
Between that point and the point at which Loki fakes his death, Willow indulges quite a bit in pondering potential futures. As much as she's willing to commit herself to Loki, she's also shipping Thor/Jane pretty hard and kind of lowkey entertaining the idea of polyamory (not that she thinks it's an actual option; but she's definitely into the fantasy of it). Unfortunately, Loki is both perceptive and self-pitying; he interprets her attraction toward the other couple as pining for Thor, and he takes this as a point toward staging a coup for the throne rather than absconding with her to Earth or wherever. Of course, he's not entirely wrong; Will would very much miss Thor if she fucked off to the middle of nowhere with Loki, and honestly, they'd probably both get pretty bored pretty quickly.
And so Loki decides to secure his own freedom. He helps them escape Asgard, he helps them get the Aether out of Jane, and then he fakes his death while killing Kurse so that he can double back to Asgard to get Odin out of the way. He figures that when he has the opportunity, he'll tell Willow what he's done and try to convince her to rule with him. (Though presumably he already knows that this won't happen; by faking his death, he pretty much glued Will to Thor's side. And there's that self-defeating streak of his.)
Wanderer Note 6/16/18
So, I'm giving a bit of thought to the Harry Potter installment of Wanderer. I think my original concept of the story was to have Willow be more or less on the same page as Harry and the other teenagers. But what if, instead, she's counted among the adults? (This should obviously seem like a duh, as she is an adult, but apparently I'm a moron?)
My original concept had been to have Willow appear in the universe during the final battle, interrupting Harry's defeat of Voldemort so that the story has some room to go in any number of weird directions. But A) that's kind of overdone and boring; B) Snape's already dead at that point, which is also kind of boring; and C) I don't really have any idea what direction exactly I want to go in with that?
With that said, I'm now entertaining what I think is a not-half-bad alternate idea! Rather than trying to put Will on the same footing as the 17- to 18-year-old trio, just let the teens be teens. Rather than having the story take place at the very end of Deathly Hallows after almost all of the interesting stuff has already happened, why not have the story branch off earlier? Specifically, Willow still appears quite suddenly in the world during a fight between Voldemort and Harry... except that rather than letting that fight be their final battle, how about using the graveyard scene at the end of Goblet of Fire instead?
Alternately, she shows up at Hogwarts after Harry returns with Cedric's body. (Either right away or sometime later, possibly during the summer?) In any case, what I'm saying is that I think it's a good idea to have her kind of awkwardly join the Order for the events of Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore is fascinated by her, knowing damn well that she's an extremely powerful potential weapon that completely changes the game, and I kind of think that maybe there should be some ship tease between her and Snape? (Though one assumes that he doesn't really go for it... Though, I dunno, maybe he's just not used to female attention.)
And you know what? I don't even have any kind of problem with Willow swooping in here and just taking Voldemort out so that Harry doesn't have to. Because, frankly, Harry's goddamn fifteen at this point in the story. It shouldn't be up to him to do jack shit about Voldemort, let alone potentially sacrifice his life to kill him! And that can be Willow's whole thing here (quite possibly providing her a way to bond with Snape); like, no matter if she understands that Dumbledore legit is a heroic character, she's also acutely aware that he's up to some shady shit when it comes to putting these fucking children in danger all the time???
So yeah. Give me Willow and Snape kind of playing reluctant Mama Bear and Papa Wolf to these stupid teenagers. That's what I want. Like, I could easily become lowkey obsessed with that very idea. Especially if Willow's also there to call Snape out on his bullshit. Can I just have her there teaching everyone to be better people? Like, fuck you, Malfoy, and get your racist head out of your ass; fuck you, Dumbledore, and stop expecting these poor baby children to fight all these adult Dark Wizards; and fuck you, Snape, and stop bullying these goddamn kids because you're still mad at their parents or the whole institution of Hogwarts or life itself or whatever???
That's what I want. Unamused Willow cleaning up the universe one stupid-ass wizard at a time.
And, you know, if she can take care of Dolores Umbridge before that becomes a serious problem, A motherfuckin' plus!
Personality
1. Pre-Apotheosis innocence
2. Grief re: Rory (plus killing Alex)
3. Healing through found family (TFW)
4. Uncertainty re: identity issues
5. Plotting re: Sam
6. Committing to the plan/leaving TFW
7. Adjusting to Sam/Lucifer
8. Sam/Will/Lucifer begins
9. Hesitance re: the plan
10. Reaffirming* & enacting the plan
*Swayed by some action of either Raphael or Michael.
Power
1. innocent human
2. assumed Pagan (exploring power)
3. first hint that something's wrong
4. second hint that something's wrong
5. certainty that something's wrong
6. interest from Raphael & Lucifer
7. identity crisis climaxes
8. crisis resolved by accepting mystery
9. confidently using power
Will Timeline:
- personality #1+ power #1
- personality #2 + power #2
- personality #3 + power #3-5
- personality #4 + power #6-8
- personality #5
- personality #6
- personality #7
- personality #8
- personality #9
- personality #10 + power #9
August 10, 2014
Keys needs some rewriting/thinking. Will's a bit of a Sue still, and I'd like to break that out of her.
Willow is Alex's pet project (or so they all think, knowing nothing of the Keys), but Meg has to become involved in his plan for Willow to become involved in the larger plot. So, for Alex to accomplish his ultimate goal--that being Willow's apotheosis--he'll need access to a lost ritual that only Meg can get for him (it's in the same place where Lucifer had been storing the angel tablet). So they make a deal: Meg will get the ritual, Alex will make Will a goddess, and Willow will reopen the Cage. It doesn't quite work that way.
Misc. Supernatural Fic Notes
Characters
Willow, Rachel, Alex
Dean, Lisa, Ben, Jesse
Bobby, Jody
Castiel, Meg, Crowley
Sam, Lucifer, Adam, Michael
Raphael, Gabriel, Death, Chuck
Plotlines
Willow, Dean, Lisa, Ben, Jesse, Bobby, Jody, Castiel, Meg, & Crowley hunting together.
Willow, Lisa, Jody, & Meg hunting together to explore female friendship.
Jody & Bobby as surrogate parents to Willow & Dean with Willow as Jody's favorite child & Dean as Bobby's.
One Steve Limit & Meaningful Nicknames
One Steve Limit & Meaningful Nicknames
In Raven, First, and Whirlwind, there's an issue with Willow's name thanks to the One Steve Limit; with both London and Rosenberg running around, telling them apart might be difficult. Spike takes to calling Rosenberg "Red" and London "Raven"; another option is to have the girls referred to by their last names.
Drusilla, though, gives London a possible nickname when they first meet: Aurora. I may or may not have Willow assume this name while in the Buffyverse(s).
ETA: Rachel has been renamed Aurora, aka Rory. Frankly, I had forgotten this idea, but it actually still works out perfectly. Even better, in fact. At various points between Keys and Wanderer, Willow can be referred to as "an aurora" and "the defender of mankind" in order to foreshadow the reveal of Rory and Alex's actual relation to Will.
Raven and First Premises
Buffy #1: Eternal Night of the Vampires
Buffy #2: The First Evil
Raven and red upon their heads, destiny awakens. One girl is the Ender, while another is mistaken. & Cross of silver, ray of light, in Ender's hand will end the night.
Raven and First are the two BtVS installments of Wanderer. (Excluding the either non-canonical or post-canonical Whirlwind.) They take place after an alternate ending to season five, in which Dawn successfully completed the heroic sacrifice that Buffy prevented her from completing in canon. So in the story, we find the Scoobies trying to cope with Dawn's death, among other things. Buffy has officially quit her Slayer duties, and she's cut herself off from all the Scoobies who keep trying to bring things back to the way they were before Dawn. Giles in particular is appalled by Buffy's decision, and when gentle urges to return to Slaying (including praising Dawn's bravery and insisting they honor her sacrifice) get him nowhere, he becomes dismissive of Dawn and derisive of Buffy. The others agree to varying extents, save for the sole exception of Spike, who is 100% with Buffy (unlike, for example, Tara, who is understanding but disappointed). Buffy essentially retreats from the world, and when Giles and Xander make it clear that Spike isn't longer welcome, he joins her. Enter Willow London. She arrives in the Buffyverse at just the right moment to earn herself all the wrong attention from the Scoobies, and she becomes their number one candidate for "next über evil".
Willow to Spike: "Having a soul is highly overrated." (Spike wishes he had his soul back for Buffy's sake, but Willow feels he's fine without it. Her quote is a reference to her mistaken belief that if Alex had destroyed her soul in the Apotheosis ritual, Rachel would still be alive.)
Raven to Red: So... are you a good witch or a bad witch?
Drusilla swayed in front of her, eyes wide and staring. "Oh... Spike, you're riding an aurora!"
Speculation on the Master in Raven
In Raven, the Master is a possible candidate to be the driving force of the Eternal Night, taking on the role of Medlock. However, Willow R. should take the role of Scarlet. So while Wishverse!Master = Medlock, Wishverse!Willow = Scarlet, & Wishverse!Xander = Milnoose is a possibility, it makes more sense for megawitch!Willow to have a plotline similar to her canon season six plotline; she could fall in with a bad crowd, some warlock who makes her his unwitting (or merely conflicted? or knight templar?) Scarlet and uses her to bring about the Eternal Night. Perhaps the rock creature from Angel season four could play the Medlock?
Tiny Note on the First
The First can appear to Will as Sam, Adam, Lucifer, Michael, Dean, Bobby, Castiel, Meg, Crowley, Alex, Rachel, Harry Potter, and Lord Voldemort. It SHOULD appear to her as Sam, Alex, and Rachel. Maybe Voldy. First Rachel, methinks, to give her an idea that something's wrong--but also some degree of calm. Then Alex, to taunt her about what happened to Rachel. And then it should spend most of its time as Sam.
Note re: Choosing the Endgame Verse
In Trickster, Willow is horrified to learn that the Asgardians are not, in fact, immortal and only live about five thousand years. Part of deciding where to settle down will be deciding whether she's content to spend the rest of his life with him only to move on after his death or if she should return to Spike, who genuinely is immortal (but who comes with Buffy, who has a normal human lifespan).
Whirlwind Outline
Whirlwind is much more deadly than the canon version of season two.
First, Joyce is killed on Valentine's Day while Buffy and her friends are at the Bronze. Buffy moves in with Giles while the authorities try to get in contact with her dad.
Then, Jenny is killed around the same time and in roughly the same way as in canon.
Next, Willow and Xander are turned by either Angelus and Dru or Spike and Dru. It all but breaks Buffy, and she attempts to wipe out the Whirlwind once and for all. But it's clearly a suicide mission, and Buffy is turned by Angelus before dusting a single one of them.
So for senior year, Giles, Oz, and Cordelia are the only Scoobies left. They are joined by Kendra, Harmony, Jonathan, and Amy. (I was going to include Larry, but he should have graduated by this point.)
Note 1/16/15: Post-Whirlwind Idea
I gotta say, I really like the idea of writing some stories (maybe shorts, maybe full novels) about Willow's life in Buffyverse A, post-Whirlwind (Buffyverse B). The Buffy x Spike x Angel triad is already underway, and Willow has a freestanding invitation to return. She does.
I think it would be interesting to replicate the storyline of BtVS S8 and Angel S5, to the extent that I can. Let's give Wolfram & Hart to Angel and an organization of wannabe Scoobies to Buffy. Hell, maybe the story starts with the three trying to make a relationship work while Buffy and Spike are in Sunnydale and Angel's in L.A. (I enjoy the idea of Will shocking everyone by offering to move in with Angel, leading to some jealousy from Spike/Buffy and initial awkwardness before eventual bonding between Will and Angel.)
Avengers Adaptation Plot Point
In the scene where they find that S.H.I.E.L.D. is making WMDs, they also discovered that S.H.I.E.L.D. has plans for Willow. This serves as the answer to the question set up in the very first chapter, which is why is Shield interested in Willow in the first place? That answer is of course that they understand she's a lot more powerful than your run-of-the-mill superhero. They recognize that she keeps developing new powers, and they think that she might be as much of a potential weapon for them as the Tessaract.
Willow Using the Infinity Stones
At the end of the original The Avengers adaptation, Willow manages to save New York by harnessing the power of the Tesseract to reopen the Portal 2 wherever the fuck the chitauri came from. At the end of the adaptation of Age of Ultron, Willow tries to keep the meteor section of Sokovia from falling and wiping out all life on Earth. But as the rest of the Avengers can see from the Helicarrier, it doesn't look like she's strong enough to pull it off. They Wonder Very briefly what the difference is between this instance and what happened in New York, and Vision realizes that it's because when she was in New York, she had the power boost of harnessing an infinity stone. And just what's in Vision head? The mind Stone. So he flies off to go join her, and Willow uses the mind Stone to amplify her power and bring Sokovia slowly down into the ocean.
The Willow/Loki Ship
Willow's ongoing love for Loki really only makes sense if there's kind of the implication that they fell for each other during the Helicarrier scene. There needs to be the implication that A) she deeply, truly, completely understands him in that moment and B) he understands that she does. It needs to be an implied bond right from the get-go, with the romance in The Dark World being the thing that turns that bond into an actual relationship.
(Of course their later issue is that while Will understands him, he neither understands nor really trusts her. He expects her to eventually leave him--quite possibly for Thor--and so he pushes her to do so by faking his death during The Dark World. It's only during Ragnarok that he really begins to properly appreciate what she offered him, and by that point, she doesn't think she can offer it to him again, considering she actually has gotten together with Thor since his "death".)
He looked stricken. "I didn't know--"
"What, did you think it was just pity on my part? That I just wanted to screw around with a homicidal maniac for a while?" Will barked a laugh. "I loved you from the moment I touched your mind. And the very next thing you did was try to take control of mine! And then you had the gall to *die*, and I was about ready to burn the universe to the fucking ground because of it. What part of me didn't seem serious? What part of my love wasn't good enough for you? Because I thought you wanted me, too. Even if you didn't love me, I thought there was *something* between us. But apparently I meant so little to you that you thought faking your death was an acceptable way to get rid of me. So, yeah, Loki. *Fuck you.*"
If Frigga Lives...
So let's just go all-in on this whole "Frigga lives" thing. Will follows Kurse, who impales her when she tries to stop him from lowering Asgard's shields. Wounded and barely surviving, Will rushes to Jane and Frigga just in time to stop Kurse from killing the latter. Doing so, though, very nearly kills her.
When Odin grows more suspicious and militant after Frigga's (and Will's) near-death experience(s) and winds up more or less imprisoning Jane, Frigga gets in on the plot to free her.
Does it make sense for him to still imprison Jane, though? He really only does it in canon because he's kind of in a rage mourning Frigga. He keeps Jane under guard on Asgard because he wants revenge on the Dark Elves, and Jane's a guarantee that they'll be coming back. If Frigga doesn't die... Would he actually want Jane to stay, or would he try to send her ass back to Earth?
Maybe the real answer is to somehow circumvent the whole thing? If the TDW plot kind of sucks and all that I want to preserve of it is Loki faking a heroic sacrifice so he can steal Odin's throne, maybe that's all I should keep?
When Frigga realizes what Loki has done, she quietly disappears, heading to Earth to search for the real Odin.
Rambling about the Thor: The Dark World Adaptation
So, I have had yet another "what if?" thought that I think I've already talked myself out of using, but I'm going to record it here for the sake of the argument. Here's how it goes:
The reasoning behind Odin's imprisonment of Jane has been something of a sticking point for me in light of Frigga's survival in this fic. Namely, my issue is that he doesn't really have a reason to imprison her if he isn't blind with rage-grief. Now, I'm going to reexamine canon in a few minutes to double-check that he doesn't have a better reason for doing to Jane what he does, but for the sake of the argument, that's the assumption that I'm operating under.
The thought that has occurred to me is that if Odin is in the mindset of overreacting to what he perceives as threats... who are the two biggest threats to Asgard right now? (Among those humanoids who aren't already in prison, I mean...) Jane, who is possessed by the Aether and therefore wanted by the Dark Elf army, and Willow, who is possibly as powerful as the Aether all by herself and also literally in bed with a traitor who's already tried to steal the throne once. So if he's keeping Jane under lock and key... why not Willow, too? (The answer to that one would be obvious: he can't reasonably persecute Will for association with Loki if he only suspects that something's going on between them.)
Now, my answer to all of this is that, quite frankly, while it makes sense for Willow to get stowed away with Jane, I want Willow to be a part of the "let's rescue Jane" shenanigans. That's when her relationship with Loki comes out to Thor, Sif, and the lot, and I much prefer the reveal happening that way over Odin more or less outing her. And I suppose that if I find myself looking for an excuse as to why Odin wouldn't lock Willow away, I needn't look too far; I need only say that he doesn't imprison Willow with Jane specifically because Jane is powerless to stop him from imprisoning her, while Willow is decidedly not. Willow could easily bust her ass out of any cell short of one specifically guarded 24/7 by Odin himself, and who the fuck has time for that?
Further Thor: The Dark World Rambling
And now we have another issue. I had pretty much forgotten that Thor's recruitment of Loki in canon was intended to end with Loki being returned to his imprisonment, presumably for literal eternity. Obviously, that is a huge motivator for Loki to fake his death in canon; it's still a significant motivation in the fic, I'm sure. The question is how Will figures into all this.
So here's what I'm thinking. Obviously, Will isn't especially down with the idea of her lover being in prison for the rest of forever; she wants him set free, provided that he, you know, doesn't immediately try to kill them all or anything else particularly maniacal. Thor, on the other hand, isn't thrilled with the notion of permanently unleashing his homicidal little brother upon the world; as he says in canon, he no longer holds out hope that Loki's anything but a villain at this point. Perhaps the compromise can simply be that Loki's freedom during the Convergence will be a test; if he proves that he is in any way reformed, Thor will allow him to leave with Willow if that's what she really wants.
Between that point and the point at which Loki fakes his death, Willow indulges quite a bit in pondering potential futures. As much as she's willing to commit herself to Loki, she's also shipping Thor/Jane pretty hard and kind of lowkey entertaining the idea of polyamory (not that she thinks it's an actual option; but she's definitely into the fantasy of it). Unfortunately, Loki is both perceptive and self-pitying; he interprets her attraction toward the other couple as pining for Thor, and he takes this as a point toward staging a coup for the throne rather than absconding with her to Earth or wherever. Of course, he's not entirely wrong; Will would very much miss Thor if she fucked off to the middle of nowhere with Loki, and honestly, they'd probably both get pretty bored pretty quickly.
And so Loki decides to secure his own freedom. He helps them escape Asgard, he helps them get the Aether out of Jane, and then he fakes his death while killing Kurse so that he can double back to Asgard to get Odin out of the way. He figures that when he has the opportunity, he'll tell Willow what he's done and try to convince her to rule with him. (Though presumably he already knows that this won't happen; by faking his death, he pretty much glued Will to Thor's side. And there's that self-defeating streak of his.)
Wanderer Note 6/16/18
So, I'm giving a bit of thought to the Harry Potter installment of Wanderer. I think my original concept of the story was to have Willow be more or less on the same page as Harry and the other teenagers. But what if, instead, she's counted among the adults? (This should obviously seem like a duh, as she is an adult, but apparently I'm a moron?)
My original concept had been to have Willow appear in the universe during the final battle, interrupting Harry's defeat of Voldemort so that the story has some room to go in any number of weird directions. But A) that's kind of overdone and boring; B) Snape's already dead at that point, which is also kind of boring; and C) I don't really have any idea what direction exactly I want to go in with that?
With that said, I'm now entertaining what I think is a not-half-bad alternate idea! Rather than trying to put Will on the same footing as the 17- to 18-year-old trio, just let the teens be teens. Rather than having the story take place at the very end of Deathly Hallows after almost all of the interesting stuff has already happened, why not have the story branch off earlier? Specifically, Willow still appears quite suddenly in the world during a fight between Voldemort and Harry... except that rather than letting that fight be their final battle, how about using the graveyard scene at the end of Goblet of Fire instead?
Alternately, she shows up at Hogwarts after Harry returns with Cedric's body. (Either right away or sometime later, possibly during the summer?) In any case, what I'm saying is that I think it's a good idea to have her kind of awkwardly join the Order for the events of Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore is fascinated by her, knowing damn well that she's an extremely powerful potential weapon that completely changes the game, and I kind of think that maybe there should be some ship tease between her and Snape? (Though one assumes that he doesn't really go for it... Though, I dunno, maybe he's just not used to female attention.)
And you know what? I don't even have any kind of problem with Willow swooping in here and just taking Voldemort out so that Harry doesn't have to. Because, frankly, Harry's goddamn fifteen at this point in the story. It shouldn't be up to him to do jack shit about Voldemort, let alone potentially sacrifice his life to kill him! And that can be Willow's whole thing here (quite possibly providing her a way to bond with Snape); like, no matter if she understands that Dumbledore legit is a heroic character, she's also acutely aware that he's up to some shady shit when it comes to putting these fucking children in danger all the time???
So yeah. Give me Willow and Snape kind of playing reluctant Mama Bear and Papa Wolf to these stupid teenagers. That's what I want. Like, I could easily become lowkey obsessed with that very idea. Especially if Willow's also there to call Snape out on his bullshit. Can I just have her there teaching everyone to be better people? Like, fuck you, Malfoy, and get your racist head out of your ass; fuck you, Dumbledore, and stop expecting these poor baby children to fight all these adult Dark Wizards; and fuck you, Snape, and stop bullying these goddamn kids because you're still mad at their parents or the whole institution of Hogwarts or life itself or whatever???
That's what I want. Unamused Willow cleaning up the universe one stupid-ass wizard at a time.
And, you know, if she can take care of Dolores Umbridge before that becomes a serious problem, A motherfuckin' plus!