Yay, I just finished this story of yours too. Lovely characterization, I especially love how when your characters talk I can 'hear' them talking. The word choice, the tempo, all right on target. Nice job. :)

that was amazing... especially in light of the body. color me totally impressed.

This was excellent. There isn't much Joyce fic out there. Nice to see. You kept her very much in character, fearful, but needing and wanting the good for her child. But completely fearful to do so. Thanks.

Yay for writing a very in-character Joyce. This was good, very introspective, and I liked it. Coincidentally, I watched 'Anne' today, so I'm right in the late season 2/early season 3 mindset, which is, in my opinion, the perfect mindset for reading this.
I liked the way this filled in gaps, such as how Joyce came to realise that her daughter actually was the Slayer, and also, how the rest of the Scoobies found out that Joyce knew about Buffy being the Slayer. However, what I loved most about this fic was how it was completely about Joyce and her life and what her life was when Buffy left. The things about the comic books and the Beatles and the Wings (loved that, btw) and the superhero comparison just rang so true and made Joyce into someone other than just Buffy's mother, yet at the same time, emphasised the fact that she was indeed Buffy's mother.
I'm not entirely sure what I'm writing is entirely coherent, so I figure I'll quit while I'm behind and leave you with a 'thank you, I really enjoyed this,' cos, yeah, I did.
-- Emma

This is an absolutely wonderful fic. I loved the comic book connections to Joyce's girlhood. I would love to see you do a longer story with Giles teaching Joyce about the supernatural during the summer between seasons 2 and 3.

Oh, and everybody's charcterization was really good. Especially Cordelia.

Oh, that was wonderful. Wonderfully written and sad, and you captured just flawlessly how Joyce must have been feeling. Perfect characterization, and I love how you gave Giles, Cordelia, and Xander an appearance. All of the descriptions were just so thorough and well-done (I especially loved the part about Buffy's pillow), and got me completely immersed in the story.

Fabulous fic. :-)

~Star

This is a lovely, poignant little story. I think you've captured Joyce's sense of loss and anger very well.

This is absolutely wonderful. First off, you don't get many Joyce fics, so this was nice. Very somber, and you express Joyce's feelings of being an outcast from the group very well by keeping focused on her. You let us see the others through her eyes, simultaneously telling us how she feels about what she's hearing them saying, and it's just magnificent.

I like that you made her a tomboy when she was little, because you never would have expected that from watching her on the show. The Lois Lane tie-in was great. Toward the end, I remember getting the impression that Joyce was coming around and was going to be understanding, and I started thinking, "That's not like her really." Then you said something about her figuring out a way for Buffy to stop Slaying, going back to the care-free girl she was and all her friends would be safe again, and I thought, "That's more like Joyce". She always means well, but she just can't ever identify with Buffy well enough to know what she needs. I absolutely adored it!

you portaited Joyce very nicely.

wow..it's kind of like you got into joyce's head

Great story. Really true to Joyce, and it's good to read anything from her perspective as she was always kind of side lined in the series.

Great

Wow... flashback to when everyone's lives were actually a lot simpler... if they only knew then! :)

This is good. You never really saw what Joyce went through between Buffy
leaving and coming back.

Yahtzee,

Very interesting piece on Joyce. You've really captured how she must be feeling at the end of season two and made an interesting connection with it to her childhood. Great job :-)