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30 Days of Buffy Meme — Day 7
Jun. 23rd, 2014 01:40 pm( The list of days... )
Least Favorite Male Character:
There are lots of men on Buffy to dislike. Some I love to hate. Some I only hate some of the time. There are hardly any guys on the show that I feel neutral about. All of them have disappointed me at some point or other. Even darling Oz screws up.
I'm doing a rewatch right now, and I'm finding Xander less charming than ever before. I don't hate him, though. He's pretty realistic with good and less good traits; his crimes are small time, personal ones, mostly, and he seems to show growth to a certain extent over the course of the show.
A character trait that I find disturbing is paternalism — a person, organization, etc., that protects people and gives them what they need but does not give them any responsibility or freedom of choice. In Buffy, there are a range of men (and sometimes women) who exhibit this trait, and I don't like 'em: Quentin Travers, Angel, Maggie Walsh, later-season Willow Rosenberg. Riley Finn has a real tendency in this direction, but he never really pulls it off. There's deadbeat dad Hank Summers on the other side of the equation. Is taking on more responsibility for people than they want you to really worse than not taking any responsibility for your actual children? There are some "daddy" figures on the show that are really wonderful: Giles, Richard Wilkins III (The Mayor), and D'Hoffryn.
There are characters who are horrible, but too funny to really hate: Principal Snyder, Ethan Rayne, enormous user Parker, pre-coming out Larry. Larry is an example of lovely character growth. He's a HUGE jerk who becomes a sweetie pie and a hero. He's a cautionary tale against writing off people, really.
But then there's the out-and-out misogynists: Pete from Beauty and the Beasts, the yucky swim team/coach combo from Go Fish, the horrible werewolf hunter from Phases, Tucker Wells from The Prom, Kralik from Helpless. These are mainly one-shot villains, though, and I don't feel like they have enough impact to rise to the level of "the worst".
Then there's Warren. He's arguably a Great Man, a genius. He's completely aware of his choices, but he chooses to use his gifts for entirely selfish, destructive ends. He's given plenty of opportunity to rethink his trajectory but remains unrepentant to the end. Was anybody sorry to see him go?
Least Favorite Male Character:
There are lots of men on Buffy to dislike. Some I love to hate. Some I only hate some of the time. There are hardly any guys on the show that I feel neutral about. All of them have disappointed me at some point or other. Even darling Oz screws up.
I'm doing a rewatch right now, and I'm finding Xander less charming than ever before. I don't hate him, though. He's pretty realistic with good and less good traits; his crimes are small time, personal ones, mostly, and he seems to show growth to a certain extent over the course of the show.
A character trait that I find disturbing is paternalism — a person, organization, etc., that protects people and gives them what they need but does not give them any responsibility or freedom of choice. In Buffy, there are a range of men (and sometimes women) who exhibit this trait, and I don't like 'em: Quentin Travers, Angel, Maggie Walsh, later-season Willow Rosenberg. Riley Finn has a real tendency in this direction, but he never really pulls it off. There's deadbeat dad Hank Summers on the other side of the equation. Is taking on more responsibility for people than they want you to really worse than not taking any responsibility for your actual children? There are some "daddy" figures on the show that are really wonderful: Giles, Richard Wilkins III (The Mayor), and D'Hoffryn.
There are characters who are horrible, but too funny to really hate: Principal Snyder, Ethan Rayne, enormous user Parker, pre-coming out Larry. Larry is an example of lovely character growth. He's a HUGE jerk who becomes a sweetie pie and a hero. He's a cautionary tale against writing off people, really.
But then there's the out-and-out misogynists: Pete from Beauty and the Beasts, the yucky swim team/coach combo from Go Fish, the horrible werewolf hunter from Phases, Tucker Wells from The Prom, Kralik from Helpless. These are mainly one-shot villains, though, and I don't feel like they have enough impact to rise to the level of "the worst".
Then there's Warren. He's arguably a Great Man, a genius. He's completely aware of his choices, but he chooses to use his gifts for entirely selfish, destructive ends. He's given plenty of opportunity to rethink his trajectory but remains unrepentant to the end. Was anybody sorry to see him go?