Joss has NO point (re: Tara's death, Joss's excuse, and gullibility)

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

I guess there's a chance to mention finale stuff here so 

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Oookay, now all of a sudden people are going "oh, yes, Joss has a
point!" and falling for his latest line of BULL. I guess it's nice to
know that he can still write SOMETHING creative, but his "the idea that
I couldn't kill Tara is as offensive as the idea that I wanted to kill
Tara" is just a stinking load of crap, pure and simple.

Joss, no one said you couldn't kill Tara. The Kittens might not have
liked it, but a well-written, purposeful death, like you gave to Jenny
or Joyce is one thing. This is another.

Jenny and Doyle died because of the choices they made, the actions they
took. They chose their courses and died heroes. (Ditto Kendra,
although that was less dramatically successful.) Ditto Buffy, both
times. Joyce's death was part of the natural order, and led to natural
reactions from those who loved her.

But Tara's death was an act of utter randomness, turning her in to a
cardboard prop to moved where the plot needed her, reducing her life
into just an excuse for Willow to go ill-freaky with the mojo. I can't
think of anything more demeaning to a character. (Why the hell couldn't
she have died saving Willow? Buffy took a bullet for Xander, why can't
Tara push Willow out of the way and catch lead for it?)

Gay characters can have issues (the W/T break-up didn't address the
right issues or address them well, but it was realistic and not wrong at
all for Joss to do) and they can suffer and Joss may not have treat them
like porcelain dolls, but if he respects the straight characters, he has
to respect the gay characters, too. He can't treat them like
second-class citizens, have ONLY the gay characters die random,
pointless deaths, have ONLY the gay characters overreact and go
psychotic (you didn't see BlackMagicGiles try do destroy the world in
"Passion" did you?) in the face of trauma, have ONLY the gay characters
fall from innocence to world-destroying murderous evil, and expect not
to get called on it.

Because that sends the subtextual message that gay and ONLY gay
characters die randomly, react irrationally, and lose all moral
perspective. And they do this not because of the events of the plot,
but because they are gay. Because their gayness makes them do these
evil things. Because their gayness makes these things happen to them.
Because BEING GAY IS WRONG, and so therefore Tara deserved what she got
and Willow quite naturally did what Giles didn't do in the exact same
circumstance, because she's a "great big lesbo" and what do you expect
from them fucked-up dykes, sanity? If they were sane, they wouldn't be
gay, right?

This is a hateful message, and while I don't like to haul my Lesbo
Street Cred out for close inspection, I've got enough gay people in my
life to get pretty pissed off about this. If you're going to win awards
for being open-minded and tolerant and bask in the glow of everyone
talking about how gay-positive your show is, then you have an obligation
to maintain a positive gay presence of some sort on the show.

But in the space of four episodes the gay quotient on "Buffy' went from:

Tara--nice gay person

Willow--nice gay person

to this:

Tara--dead gay person; completely random (it's like God struck her
down to punish her, y'know)

Willow--murderer; emotionally unstable; killed someone who was going
to jail anyway and used magic she didn't have to touch to do it. (What,
the stuff she fought Glory with [which didn't change her hair, voice,
personality and moral structure] wouldn't have worked? But she just
went nuts, because Queers do that, y'know. Because that's how Queers
are.)

Also may not be gay for very long, given that W/X scene. See, she was
nuts when she was with that dyke, Tara, but Xander will make her all
nice and "normal" again.

Andrew--incompetent, evil sissy; easily misled; no moral sense at
all; social leper; never had sex of any sort.

You know, if Joss had been getting awards for positively portraying
Jewish people on television, had been talking about how he minored in
Jewish studies, had bragged about how bravely he stood up to the
pressure when Willow "converted" to Judaism, had gotten fantastic
support and devotion from the Jewish community in return--and then he'd
destroyed the purely Jewish character, made Willow do horrible things
and hinted that she might well "return" to Christianity in Season 7, and
left

MOTHER-FUCKING ANDREW

as the only Jewish character on the show, I think I'd be pretty damn
pissed. And I wouldn't be buying it if Joss said he couldn't have a
"Jewish quota" or he had to treat his Jewish characters like his
Christian ones, particularly since he was treating ALL his Jewish (in
the metaphor; in actuality, gay) characters much WORSE than he had
treated ANY of his Christian/straight ones.

(Leaving the metaphor aside, I am in point of fact rather honked about
his portrayal of Jewish characters, as is. It's not such fun to see the
ONLY Jews on the show, Willow and Jonathan, be reduced to moral
weaklings and immature evildoers while Giles and Xander, the steadfast
and true Christian men, save the world from "Darth Rosenberg".)

I'm sure he's not trying to make an anti-Jewish point, but neither is he
**trying** to make an anti-gay one. The difference is, while I can
forgive Joss for not thinking how his treatment of Willow and Jonathan
would look to a Jewish audience, since he hadn't consciously been
dealing in Jewish issues to any great extent nor had he been taking
credit for it, I don't think he should be forgiven for how his handling
of the gay characters looks to a gay audience.  

Because he HAS made the choice to explore gay issues; he HAS reaped the
rewards of his decisions and taken credit for them; he HAS made
smirking jokes about how he himself is gay and bashed those who
criticized him for including gay content on the show. So for him to now
say "oh, Tara's not just a gay chararacter, she's like all my other
characters" and pretend that he doesn't see the anti-gay message in his
handling of Tara and Willow and his leaving Andrew as the sole standing
"homo" on the show is baldfaced (and two-faced) hypocrisy.

Suppose it's 1967. Joss Whedon is the hero of liberal Hollywood for his
daring portrayal of a young black couple. The man dies a pointless
death that serves no other plot point than to have the woman go insane
and do immoral, ill-considered things no grieving white character has
ever done on the show. At the same time, the most incompetent villain
in the history of the show is revealed to be secretly black, and runs
around going "Lawsy, lawsy, Mizz Clawsy, I's gwana keeelll all youse
whaht fokes!" before conking his head on an overhanging roof.

Think the NAACP would be pissed? Me too. And I wouldn't buy any "equal
treatment, no quotas" crap from Joss over THAT, either.

Dan

Anyone on any W/T lists, please feel free to repost this there. I was
never a supporter of Tara as a character, therefore I'd feel wrong
joining up just to post this, but I'm proud to say I feel Joss is
treating his gay characters like crap and he shouldn't be allowed to
wriggle out of this with his Lie of the Week. ("Tara had to die,
because I can't treat my gay characters any differently"--yeah, right.)