Hole in the Heart

Went to work yesterday, so I'm behind on responses - drinkthepoisonx had a great long post the other day critiquing/thinking about the Jossverse sex=death meme (encapsulated - why is romance only trotted out as the trigger for extreme tragedy and/or death of one of the lovers?) and on a related note, wisteria_ had a link to a letter from Joss Whedon on next week's episode, on that very subject, which pretty much confirmed my own uneasy suspicions about where this is going (encapsulated - he's gonna hurt the girl). Not like you couldn't guess that from the trailer.

I've been thinking hard lately on why the last couple of years of BtVS bugged me so much, and what it is about Joss's little habits that have come to bother me. I'm going to have to write that out at greater length at some point, but right now, I think what's getting to me the most is this - the idea that the audience is there because they get off on the characters being tortured. Like the hows and whys almost don't matter anymore, as long as someone's hurting. Like even wishing for happiness is a sure recipe for bringing on the pain.

You know, that's not the world I live in. I like these characters too much to enjoy pain for pain's sake. If this is all Joss is going to give us, maybe it's for the best that this is the last season. : (

On a more upbeat note, toysdream has a neat theory about the implication of souls. I like this one because it makes them important without even addressing all the questions about good/evil/conscience/whatever.