How do you feel about Joyce through the series?

Chosen Enemy

Chosen Enemy

Losing my soul
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Back then, around the 3rd season, I still hated Joyce. I felt that she didn't support Buffy enough, that she wanted to break Buffy and Angel apart, and that she was basically evil. But as the series went on, I started really liking her. I saw her as a mother who wants nothing but the best for her daughter. I started understanding why she wanted Angel to break up with Buffy. I started seeing her reasons for things. And then when she passed away, it really hurt. I couldn't not feel love for her, she was a good mother, a good person, she was just cool. I used to really hate her in the beginning, but then I cared for her and really felt bad that she died.

How do you feel about Joyce through the series and overall?
 
S
Skytteflickan88
Did you read my mind? This is exactly what I think.
Goby
Goby
BTW, I love the threads you start! You're good! ;)
In the beginning, I wasn't fond of Joyce. I thought she was so self-involved and not as caring and understanding of Buffy as she should have been. However, as the show went on, I grew to love Joyce and realize that every parent makes mistakes. Joyce made her share, which shows that she's not perfect, but at the end of the day, she was a good mother.
 
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Skytteflickan88
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paks
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wickedtiger86
wickedtiger86
What I was going to say, exactly. :D
I feel Joyce is one of the few characters in the Buffyverse who didn't stay on the show beyond her purpose. One of the biggest flaws of BtVS (IMO) is that characters stay on the show too long and have nothing to do. Joyce was perfect in that regard, in s1-s3 she was the protective mom, in s4 she only made a few appearances because it didn't make sense for her to be a significant part of the story and in s5 she was a loving mother to Dawn.

It's safe to say I like Joyce lol. She was a great character who never felt unnecessary, she wasn't annoying (except in the beginning of s3) and she added a family dimension to Buffy's life. Overall she was great.
 
E
EvilBuffy
[No message]
In the earlier seasons (1-3) I really didn't like Joyce. On the other hand, I couldn't put myself in her position, and I was looking everything from Buffy's perspective. I was looking her trough child eyes, and most of the things she did, were wrong to me.

I started liking her when season 4 started.
 
When I watched BTVS for the first time, I didn't really care for Joyce. I didn't hate her, but I didn't really like her either. When I watched BTVS for the second time, I started to like her more. I think she really tried to do what was best for Buffy, and often she just didn't understand what was going on in Buffy's life. But she always tried to do what was best.
 
Loved her. 😛


You young wipper-snappers love to hate on her for her actions at the end of Season 2. Let's talk in a few years when you have teenage children (whether they are slayers or not).
 
Chosen Enemy
Chosen Enemy
Pretty sure they won't be slayers :)
I never had any problem with Joyce, and I always liked her. I was very sad when she died. I didn't like what she did at the end of Season 2, but I didn't blame her for it. Parents make mistakes like that all the time, and she was a very supportive mother. Was she particularly annoying in Season 1 or something, and that's why you all don't like her? Because I saw Season 1 after Seasons 2 and 3...

Maybe it has something to do with watching the show as a kid. I never held anything against Joyce, but I suppose I can see why some teenagers would. When I was watching the beginning of Season 3 recently, during one of the scenes where Joyce is alone and worried about Buffy my mum said "Poor Joyce..." =(

So clearly, mothers would probably sympathise with her a lot. XD
 
Joyce? Me no likey. 'cept with Spikey. (Or high on Band Candy.)

Seriously, she was grating on my nerves almost all the time... and her actions and attitude in Becoming/Anne/DMP are just appalling, I never managed to get over that. Harsh as it sounds, "The Body" still leaves me unable to relate to any feeling of loss there (and that's coming from someone who's lost both my own parents by now).
 
Z
zobothehobo
this except I can and do releate to The Body
Old Master 3.0
Old Master 3.0
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brinkster130
brinkster130
[No message]
Joyce grew on me as the series progressed. I think her scenes with Spike were what made me start to really like her.
 
She had a few moments. Mostly with Spike or during S5(I could feel her bond with Buffy much more then). Aside from those times, I didn't like her. She wasn't a *terrible* mother, but she could have been so much better.

Goby, I know being a parent isn't easy, but she never tried hard enough to connect with her daughter. She was seriously lacking on that part. Also she was way too harsh with Buffy when she got back from L.A. Didn't even try to understand why she had ran away in the first place. Another proof she had very little connection with Buff.

Oh and as for 'The Body', I do get sad watching it. But it's not for her, more for Buffy and Dawn.
 
Goby
Goby
I can't hardily wait for little Tomette to turn into a teenager. ;)
I loved Joyce ever since the beginning, I thought she was the sweetest. I understand that she always just wanted the best for Buffy, and I think she's the kind of Mom every Mom should be like. I'm lucky enough to have an amazing Mom who's a lot like Joyce. 🙂
 
I like Joyce more as the series went on, and I think that's because her character was becoming more fleshed out, so rather than her being a "filler" character who had a couple of typical "mom" lines in a scene here and there, she became an actual mom.

In season one, she was very self-involved, and it seemed as though she was more focused on herself than Buffy for a minute or two. Then of course, there was her bookstore take on parenting where she would get her advice and tactics from books. I think that really spoke to the idea of adult role models in the series as a whole. There really weren't any. And most of the parents were never there.

Eventually, Joyce became the resident mom, which was great. I love the last scene in "Killed by Death" where Buffy is in bed, with Xander and Willow in bed, and on the chair next to her, and when Joyce comes it, she's a mom to all of them. I love that.

Sure, she's made some mistakes, but I can imagine having a daughter that is a vampire slayer isn't easy 🙂 BUT she's been the only parent that's been there the whole time. I can't hate her for that.
 
Taake
Taake
[No message]
My opinion of Joyce was never really influenced by the first season of Buffy, since as I mentioned before, I saw it after the second and third. But now that you mention it, it makes me wonder if they intended her character to be self involved in the beginning and then changed their minds. Perhaps the damage had already been done...because I'm amazed at how many people don't like Joyce.

I'm wondering this because I saw the movie the other day and Buffy's mum in the movie was a completely self-involved, ignorant, oblivious ditz. Maybe they were going to go down that road with the series too but they changed their minds early on.
 
In the first half of Season One, I thought that she was was a sincere and earnest, if slightly ineffective mom. I very quickly learned to love her, though, and did so for the rest of the series.
 
I don't think they intended her to be much of a character, early on. I agree with what others have said that she was kind of the typical Buffyverse uninvolved parent.

But, at the same time, I can understand and rationalize her actions. She'd just become a single parent. Just moved to a new town. Just been divorced and now fully responsible for a house, and bills, and parenting, and all that stuff that can drive a person crazy, and on her own with no help for the first time in quite a few years. AND on top of that, she was starting up her own business and working long hours to make ends meet. I don't really see any of that as being "self-involved." More like finding her feet.

Yeah, she wasn't around much in the first season, but she was legitimately busy. It took her a while to figure out how to balance everything on her own. And how sweet was it when she bought Buffy that dress even though, as Buffy commented, they couldn't afford it?

I admit I didn't like the things she said to Buffy at the end of season 2, or the things she said to Giles at the beginning of season 3. But, you know, I don't blame her for lashing out at either of them. It's easy for us to see her as being irrational because from our point of view, knowing what the show is about, we easily accept that vampires and other monsters are real. We want Joyce to accept it because it's so obvious. But to her, it's not. If your daughter suddenly told you she was a vampire slayer, how would you react? And if that nice librarian who you respected and trusted because of how he looked out for your daughter told you that he was in on all of it, encouraging her? I'd probably react in the exact same way.

I just can't dislike her. Yes, she made some mistakes, said some things in the heat of the moment that she shouldn't have, but nobody's perfect. I actually like that about her character. She's not June Cleaver. She's a real mom.
 
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