Re: "and he proudly named Willow."

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

>Face it, none of them were happy.

And, leaving aside the fact that somewhere along the line Joss segued
from telling good stories and causing unhappiness as a result to just
looking for ways to mess characters up and jerk the audience around,
it's not that Tara dying was bad, it's just the treatment of the story
in contrast to the other characters.

Of the eight heterosexual relationships the Scoobies had, only one s.o.
(Jenny) died and that was essentially because of her own actions. (Not
saying she deserved it, but there was a causal link to her actions.)
Several of the straight dates went on to happy healthy lives (Riley,
Angel, Cordelia) and any trauma there was in the breakup was because of
what the characters did.  

Contrast that with 1 gay relationship (to that point) = 1 dead lesbian,
struck down out of the blue by a bullet that defied all the laws of
physics, right after several continuous sex sessions. "Why, it's almost
like God hates them dykes and is punishing them," the homophobes say,
and Joss gave them the ammunition to do so.

Also, 8 straight relationship = 0 psychotic murdering exes after
breakups. 1 gay relationship = 1 loony man-skinning, world-ending dyke.
'Cause lezbos are just crazy, don't you know.

Add to that the fact that the "dead lesbian/crazy lesbian" is such a
cinematic cliche that it has been the subject of a well-know book and
documentary (Vito Russo's "The Celluloid Closet"). Add to this the fact
that Doug Petrie said in a February 2000 interview that the entire staff
was aware of the cliche and would definitely NOT do this. Put all that
together and I think the "Joss is just treating them like everyone else
because nobody gets a happy ending" defense is just cheap cover for a
man who exploited the praise he got for W/T to portray himself as
brilliant and pioneering and sensitive and then spit on the characters
and their fans as cruelly and cheaply as possible. (And no way in hell
the story let Willow "grow" as character, btw--she was severely
regressed, broken and never fixed in Season 7, her traumas almost
completely ignored because there was never any plan to deal with them.)

All Joss wanted was his comedy/porn shot: "Ha-ha! Willow's covered in
green slime/cum/her lover's blood! Splattering is so kewl!" and didn't
really care how he got it.

I disliked Tara. I oppose W/T. I'm fine with the end of "Tabula Rasa"
and the heartbreak/breakup (well, except for the "blame Willow"
elements). But defending Joss for "playing fair" to "tell a story"?
Not in my book, nu-uh, no way.

Dan