I hate watching them die

J

Jade In The Sky

Away
Joined
Apr 15, 2007
Messages
341
Age
41
Location
Bulgaria
I know that it's very common for the screenwriters of Buffy and Angel to kill a main character but I just can't take it 🙁 And why always the character that you are attached to? Okay, silly question. But it's not heart-healthy! I just watched "A Hole in the World" and seeing Fred made me really weep. But unlike Spike or Tara or Anya, I had to endure it for the WHOLE episode which really tore my heart. They had made it pretty real and to make it even spicier they showed her love with Wes. Shame on ya, writers!

Okay, so on the point. What do you think of all those deaths in Buffy/Angel? Do you think it's shomewhat a cheap way to keep the audience emotionally-unsatisfied and craving for more? Or it's all right with you? How did you react on those deaths?
 
I get choked up in the next episode, Shells, when they play that song - A Place Called Home.

The "should I lie to you now?" Wesley death scene is a rough one too.

But basically, no, the death scenes don't feel like cheap plot gimmicks to me. In Buffy and Angel's world people are going to die. Even Joyce's death felt natural and true to me.
 
Whether it's Davy Crockett at the Alamo, or Ol' Yeller, Alie McGraw in "Love Story," or any of a hundred other characters, either based on real people or completely the product of some writer's imagination, the fact that we feel the loss when they die says something quite positive both about the creator and the reader/viewer. At that moment, there is a bond between the two, something that makes us truly human' I remember the first time I saw "The Wrath of Khan," and there were middle aged men openly crying in the lobby after the show. The scene where a dying, supposedly emotionless Vulcan Spock finally admits to Captain Kirk, "I have been, and always shell be...your friend." still chokes me up, as does Fred/Illyria telling Wes, "We'll be together.." We love those characters, and they exist for us. If not, we wouldn't be true fans, we would be just someone who came for the popcorn.

I prefer to be a fan, even if it costs me a few tears along the way.
 
death makes the show realistic. you can't go through life without experiencing death, so why should the characters?
Joss uses death in many ways. to shock the audience, like with Tara and Anya, or to force the characters themselves to grow up, like with Joyce.

all the deaths on the shows, whether it's Jesse or Wesley, they all meant something, and they were all emotional, pulling at heart strings, causing us to cry over them, or celebrate...like with The Master.
the deaths on the shows never felt like gimmicks, or like they were just stuck in somewhere to cull the cast.
they are all powerful moments that everyone remembers.
lol, like 'Where were you when you realized Fred was gonna die?'

and i agree with N4H, that song at the end of 'Shells' breaks my heart every time!
 
I agree that death can be a very powerful instrument both to influence the audience and to contribute for the development of a character/ storyline. It gets even more powerful if it has a meaning or a message like your well-put examples of Joyce and Tara ( and Spike in that matter ).

But I continue to think that Fred and Wes's deaths are out of place. As much as I respect Joss, he has an affinity to using the death of a beloved character at the end of a season. As if it is a part of somewhat a winning scenario, adding more drama and a bigger picture to the whole script. You get everything - happily never after, anger, despair, striking back, etc. Doesn't it bug you that just as Fred and Wes got together and seemed finally to have their happy moment she dies? Tara and Willow - same thing. I don't mind if the movie people use the same schemes over and over and over again, knowing that we get cought every single time, but they shouldn't go too far with it because the magic will be lost and it will feel out of place.

You may call me not a fan and maybe I don't fill in the definition but one thing I can tell - when someone goes out of his track. This is what I saw in Joss after watching season 5 of Angel.

And I AM a big weeper, it doesnt' bother me 🙂. Only the times when I don't think my reaction has been how can I say? correctly evoked. Funny me I guess 😀
 
If I had to pick a death that didn't quite work for me it would be Anya's.
 
Tara's death and Anya's death...they were the worst for me. But I guess because they were two of my favourite characters. I haven't watched Angel, so I don't really know about characters death's from there.
 
nerd4hire said:
If I had to pick a death that didn't quite work for me it would be Anya's.
Click to expand...
agreed.
it was way too quick, there wasn't enough time for us to mourne her, 'cause they went straight on to the rest of the fight.
but i guess that's what Joss wanted. for it to be quick, and us left thinking 'did that really happen?'

i also hated Cordelia's death. although i loved 'You're Welcome' i didn't see the need to kill her off. i would have liked at leastCordy to be in the alley at the end, if Wes couldn't be there.
 
Although i hated seeing my favorutie characters die over and over again i have to agree that their deaths where essential for the show to be realstic, afterall death plays a major rolll in the buffyverse
 
I do hate when they kill a person off on a Tv show that you have been watching for awhile, You get so involved with the character then " poof" that person is gone. Every time I watch Buffy whether it's Joyce or Spike or Tara dying , I still get choked up over it. It's the same for movies.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom