hen it's all going well, we HAVE to mess it up, or there'd just be happyhappy and no drama
Well, yes, but they don't tell happy stories anymore. They don't do *anything* positive unless it's for the express purpose of shattering it shortly after. Like the totally out-of-the-blue Wes/Fred this week. In the past, we had relationships that built organically, like Willow/Oz, or Giles/Jenny. It seemed like they were telling the happy parts of those stories as real stories, and even though they had sad endings, we can still look back fondly on the good parts. Whereas W/F is just an obvious "get ready for tragedy!" thing.
There's a difference between telling a happy story, and then shattering it for dramatic purposes, vs. only putting in something happy for the purpose of shattering it.
relationships were always doomed
Unless you're Riley and Sam. :P
I think the message Joss has sent is that sex is bad, particularly if it's kinky.
Well, yes, kinky sex is bad. You should feel ashamed for doing such dirty things. OTOH, vanilla sex, a la Riley, is good (see "Where the Wild Things Are") and Buffy's a bad girlfriend for not being satisfied by it (and it's all her fault that Riley left her! even though he was the one getting suck jobs from vamp whores).
And lesbian sex is wonderful and holy, since it's pure Womyn Power untainted by nasty violent male sexuality, and can only be destroyed by the mean nasty misogynist and his big phallic gun.
Re:
Well, yes, but they don't tell happy stories anymore. They don't do *anything* positive unless it's for the express purpose of shattering it shortly after. Like the totally out-of-the-blue Wes/Fred this week. In the past, we had relationships that built organically, like Willow/Oz, or Giles/Jenny. It seemed like they were telling the happy parts of those stories as real stories, and even though they had sad endings, we can still look back fondly on the good parts. Whereas W/F is just an obvious "get ready for tragedy!" thing.
There's a difference between telling a happy story, and then shattering it for dramatic purposes, vs. only putting in something happy for the purpose of shattering it.
relationships were always doomed
Unless you're Riley and Sam. :P
I think the message Joss has sent is that sex is bad, particularly if it's kinky.
Well, yes, kinky sex is bad. You should feel ashamed for doing such dirty things. OTOH, vanilla sex, a la Riley, is good (see "Where the Wild Things Are") and Buffy's a bad girlfriend for not being satisfied by it (and it's all her fault that Riley left her! even though he was the one getting suck jobs from vamp whores).
And lesbian sex is wonderful and holy, since it's pure Womyn Power untainted by nasty violent male sexuality, and can only be destroyed by the mean nasty misogynist and his big phallic gun.