He does have a tendency to rely to heavily on character death as a plot twist or drama. He goes for the emotional melodrama. It's a definite weakness in his stories.
Doctor Horrible felt rather cliche - when she died. It would have been stronger - if she just left both of them. Instead her death motivates him to be evil? Shrugs.
And in Firefly - he needed the death for what - emotional catharsis? To make the battle feel real? Then why not kill off someone else? Granted everyone was coupled. But he had already killed off Shepard Book.
Same deal with Buffy - Anya's death was needed to make the battle real - so I understood that. And Spike's well for the arc and metaphor - that made sense. Tara's to make Willow go dark - although it would have been more interesting if she'd gone dark without out that happening (as I've recently seen done to great effect in fanfic.). Angel? I would have preferred that they didn't kill Wesley. I forgave the Fred death - because I prefer Illyria - much more interesting character. Cordy...there was a backstage reason for that, and no it had nothing to do with her pregnancy and everything to do with the fact that she was impossible to work with. (Apparently the network told Whedon he had to do something to get rid of Cordy and Greenwalt who were costing the network oodles of money by unnecessary delays in production and diva trips - that was the scoop I got from someone whose best bud was a production assistant on the set. I didn't believe the guy, until all the spoilers he gave me came true, and the commentary verified the story plots that didn't air that he told me about. Charisma is apparently a bit too much like the BTVS version of Cordy in real life. I don't care. She's not the first or last actor/actress to be difficult to deal with - Boreanze was allegedly, and so was Dustin Hoffman, and not everyone is fond of Whedon. Reminds me of my own workplace experiences. Like it or not, we don't get to choose our work colleagues. We're sort of stuck with them. ;-))
That said, I think Whedon is a bit obsessed with death - which to be fair, he admits. He did say that death was his obsession. He'd lost someone very important to him (his mother) and was obsessed with death and fearful of it. And a lot of his writing dealt with that.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-02-21 04:55 am (UTC)You aren't wrong.
He does have a tendency to rely to heavily on character death as a plot twist or drama. He goes for the emotional melodrama.
It's a definite weakness in his stories.
Doctor Horrible felt rather cliche - when she died. It would have been stronger - if she just left both of them. Instead her death motivates him to be evil? Shrugs.
And in Firefly - he needed the death for what - emotional catharsis? To make the battle feel real? Then why not kill off
someone else? Granted everyone was coupled. But he had already killed off Shepard Book.
Same deal with Buffy - Anya's death was needed to make the battle real - so I understood that. And Spike's well for the arc and metaphor - that made sense. Tara's to make Willow go dark - although it would have been more interesting if she'd gone dark without out that happening (as I've recently seen done to great effect in fanfic.). Angel? I would have preferred that they didn't kill Wesley. I forgave the Fred death - because I prefer Illyria - much more interesting character. Cordy...there was a backstage reason for that, and no it had nothing to do with her pregnancy and everything to do with the fact that she was impossible to work with. (Apparently the network told Whedon he had to do something to get rid of Cordy and Greenwalt who were costing the network oodles of money by unnecessary delays in production and diva trips - that was the scoop I got from someone whose best bud was a production assistant on the set. I didn't believe the guy, until all the spoilers he gave me came true, and the commentary verified the story plots that didn't air that he told me about. Charisma is apparently a bit too much like the BTVS version of Cordy in real life. I don't care. She's not the first or last actor/actress to be difficult to deal with - Boreanze was allegedly, and so was Dustin Hoffman, and not everyone is fond of Whedon. Reminds me of my own workplace experiences. Like it or not, we don't get to choose our work colleagues. We're sort of stuck with them. ;-))
That said, I think Whedon is a bit obsessed with death - which to be fair, he admits. He did say that death was his obsession. He'd lost someone very important to him (his mother) and was obsessed with death and fearful of it. And a lot of his writing dealt with that.