Dead when things start to look up

[VisionGuy]

Has anyone noticed that almost everyone in the Buffyverse gets killed off just when everything is looking up for them? I was watching the Buffy episode "Passion" today when i noticed that Jenny dies just as Giles and her finally reconcile. It was actually very sad. After all that she's been through the last couple of weeks with everyone kinda being mean to her she finally sees a little light at the end of the tunnel but then Angelus snaps her neck.

Next person on the list is Doyle. Cordelia finally finds out about his half demoness and accepts it. Just what Doyle has been waiting for ever since he met Cordy and what happens? He,in a very heroic way,dies to save everyone in that ship. It's true that he did choose to jump but I think it falls under the "Dying when things look up " category.

Moving on to Joyce. She finally finds a guy that really likes her and that probably isn't a psycho robot.She get's flowers from the guy and has an anurism(sorry for the spelling).

Now Tara. Her and Willow have a terrible fight and break up. After a while, the finally get back together.Amber Benson's name is put on the credits and everything so that we don't see her terrible death coming.

Finally Fred. Wesley falls for Fred but she gets with Gunn. After like a year or so going out, they break up. Around a year after the break up, Wesley and Fred finally get together.But what happens? Fred dies the very next episode. Does anyone else see a pattern?

I don't know if I missed anyone but if I did, feel free to add to the list.

 

[Anchovy]

yep. I think this goes wider too...just when anyone is at their happiest, Joss hits them hard.

1. Buffy & Angel: they're just getting really close when *bam* Angelus

2. Dawn: in The Body, the boy she likes is paying attention to her, he thinks she's cool and *boom* here's Buffy with news about Joyce's death.

3. Anya: She's gonna "be with her best friend forever" and *boom* he leaves her (poor Anya!)

4. Angel in "No Place like Plrtz Glrb" (sp?) he's all excited, smiling that they're safe, they got Cordy back, they rescued themselves a Fred, and *boom* there's Willow.

5. Buffy and Faith: they were finally getting along (admittadly maybe they were getting along a little to well with the cops, buuut) and then *bang* Faith kills a guy.

6. Buffy & Riley: First kiss, yay happy (ok, so there are monsters who stole everyone's voices and are killing people, but still, kissage is good) then *bam* Hey, we've been lying to each other all along

Ok, that last one was reaching, so I'll stop now, but yeah, destroying happiness is definitely a Buffy-verse specialty

 

[pyromaniac]

: laugh : It's just Joss's way of saying he loves us. Building up the nice'n'cuddlies then dashing them. 😛

 

[Willow Rosenberg]

I guess you just have to ask yourself...is real life always roses and blue skies? Nope - why should TV reflect that then?

 

[goldenboy]

It's a good thing Joss was doing, throwing folks for a loop when happy. Good for drama. Personally I thought it got a little out of hand during season 6. Every single character seemed to be having a major life crisis simultaneously. Not all related to Buffy's return. Just too much overwhelming angst. I barely got though that season again on DVD.

Well, I guess it could all be traced to OMWF. Sigh...

...except for Warren and the Nerds. Those jerks!

 

[blake]

Talking about the aingst in season six, you have hit on the seasons recurring theme. Alot of people don't like season six because it was so dark when in fact, some of my favorite, and funniest episodes come from six. But you hit on a point, about everyone having issues simultaneously, not relating to buffy. I'll argue with anyone that the big bad of six were the trio, they were just messups added in for comic relief, with a few serious moments. In all the seasons there was a theme, Buffy vs. the Master, Buffy vs. Glory, Buffy vs. Angel, and so on. In season six the beautiful Irony is that the theme was them agains themselves. Every single main character in season six imploded, there mentor had returned to England. While the finale was about the apocalypse Willow was trying to create, the end culminated in all the problems everyone was having, and if you look at it, they all sort of resolved, Willow, stopped trying to destroy everyone, and Buffy stop her new brand of self loathing, Even Spike had somewhat a resolution to his problems thru the season

 

[goldenboy]

I guess you could say that season 6 was about coming into contact with "reality". Leaving high school, college and entering the "gray' real world. Where we actually have to deal with the consequenses of our actions. Mommy and Daddy aren't going to bail us out this time. Warren was a breathtaking dose of reality. A real gun, real murder, real death and all its consequences. Give me back my fantasy! my dreams, my theoretical abstractions, I think to myself...

 

[Anchovy]

Well, YEAH goldenboy! I am just learning this now, but as James Marsters so eloquently put it, "You move out of mom's house and s*** gets weird, man!" (Try evacuating 2 people from a Class 5 hurricane with 400 bucks at 3 am and you can't get a hold of dad...boy that's fun) I think it's also interesting to think about who or what Buffy's "love interest" is in Season 6...cause as much as it looks like it, it's not Spike (more's the pity). Buffy is having to "fall in love" with herself again. And as soon as she accomplishes that: *boom* they're reopening the school that "tried to kill her for three years" and she has to send her sister there. Fun!

(didja like how I slid that OT thing back on-topic 😉 I did!)

 

[SlayerShel]

Oddly enough life seems that way too, just when you think you are happy, you get the rug pulled out from underneath you.

 

[Wicked]

joss said in some interview that happy peole are boring. people dont wanna watch happy couples. and happy people make for no drama.
personally though, id like to see buffy happy just once!

 

[goldenboy]

Well, drama is conflict, right? Sometimes ends in tragedy.

And "Comedy is tragedy plus time."
"”Carol Burnett(American comedian, actress, singer and dancer, b.1936)

Hey, didn't Angel attend the first Carol Burnett Show taping? Loved that. That was one of my favorite shows growing up.

 

[nerd4hire]

It's interesting. The possible exceptions to the "die happy" rule seem to happen in the finales of either series - Anya, Amanda, Wesley, Gunn (maybe).

 

[Drusilla's_Evil]

Oddly enough life seems that way too, just when you think you are happy, you get the rug pulled out from underneath you.

I agree, and I think that's EXACTLY how life is!! (That's an awesome metaphor by the way!!) Life isn't ever fair, but hey, that's what makes it interesting, right? 😉

 

[Frenchy Faith]

I agree with you Blake on S6 !!!

Also, it's sad to say & sad for BtVS & AtS characters... but happy people are boring! I mean, what's the point in showing happy people, after a time you get bored, somehow. Because I would have loved to see them all happy... but Joss, however much he was attached to his characters had to do something in order to keep the action & the suspens... I guess.
It's not easy for a writer to hurt their characters, but then again, better kill them than make them become boring & have all the fan end up stop watching the show because it's always the same story with a happy ending. Joss was able to keep us all addicted to his show to the end... that was a great job, even though it was so sad sometimes, & even though I'm pissed off about Joyce & other's death... it's like damn! And the show is closer to real life too... you can never say what's going to happen tomorrow right? Life is unpredictable, & so was the show...
anyway blah blah, I'm done, lol