Warning! This article contains MAJOR plot spoilers for Serenity, the new Firefly movie from Joss Whedon. Should you not wish to have the most crucial secret of the movie revealed to you, do NOT read any further.

You've been warned.

We went and saw Serenity Saturday night. Eager and ready, I even wore one of my Hawaiian shirts, in honor of Wash, my personal favourite character. We plonked down for a 7:10 showing, with a theatre full of obvious fans (the entire row behind me was taken up by members of the local Farscape fan club).

The movie was amazing. Firefly made the leap to the big screen in stupendous fashion, upping the level of the story, effects, and tension. Our favourite group of space vagabonds and bandits were thrust into a situation far beyond their ability to handle, scrambling to find a way to save their own skins and maybe come out a little ahead.

All the familiar elements of the show were there. The snappy humour, the wry looks, Mal's ability to get knocked off his mental track by odd surprises, everything. Wash's control console even sported his Dinosaur toys from the pilot episode.

We were having a great time. We took the death of Shepherd Book in stride - it was obvious he was leaving the story from the very start of the movie - and he got to go out in style, giving deathbed advice to Mal which would help to save them all. I liked Book, and I'm kinda glad he died without anyone learning his secrets. Why would he tell everything? Awesome!

So Serenity is dodging ships, after luring the assembled Reaver ships into battle with the Alliance fleet. Space fights! Near escapes! Carnage! Serenity barely makes it to the surface and does a long, spark-flying skid across the tarmac. When they screech to a halt, Wash leans back from the controls and starts to say one of his standard, comic-relief, tension-releasing quips.

And BAM. Giant spike impales him through the front window.

This was way harder to take than Book.

What the hell is it with Joss Whedon and characters in relationships? In every series of his, any couple in a relationship is torn apart in some fashion. Without fail. Sometimes they die, sometimes they simply act in self-destructive manners, but they always break up or are torn apart.

Let's look closer at his characters and their dating history.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Young Buffy didn't date a lot. When she did, it ended badly. She gave Angel one moment of pure happiness and he went all evil on her. Eventually he took himself away leaving her heartbroken. Riley was all needy and useless at the end, and left her to go fight in the jungles with the army. Don't even get me started on Spike.

Xander dated Cordelia, who he cheated on, and Anya, who he dumped at the alter. When they looked like they might get back together in the end, she got chopped up by the uber-vampires.

Willow got busy with Oz, who turned into a werewolf, got all jiggy with a female werewolf and abandoned her to find a cure. Plus she cheated on him with Xander. Tara got killed by a stray bullet, and Willow's new girlfriend Kennedy came too soon to the end of the show for something bad to happen. Yet.

Giles didn't date much, but everyone remembers what happened to poor Jenny. Another sad result of one of Buffy's relationships going bad.

Angel

Angel himself, once he fled Buffy, fell in love with Cordelia, who died, came back, and then ascended to a higher plane.

Gunn and Wes fought over Fred, who did date both of them, dumping Gunn over her feelings for Wes and then having her soul eaten by a demon. Wes had a twisted little thing with Lilah, but ended up having to decapitate her corpse to make sure she doesn't rise as a vampire. In an extra bit of ugliness, Illyria, the demon who ate Fred's soul, was just starting to have feelings for Wes when he died in the finale.

Firefly

There were two relationships in the series. One that started between Kaylie and Simon, and the existing marriage between Wash and Zoe.

Wash and Zoe were lovely. Two people happily in love, working through their differences and getting by together. When the show was cancelled, Lisa said, "Well, at least the show ended before Joss Whedon could tear them apart somehow".

And so he did. Wash died in front of Zoe in the cockpit of the ship.

As a writer, I get that someone had to die. Frankly, the stakes were way higher and the odds were against them. It wouldn't have made logical sense for them all to make it through. Also, I have the distinct feeling that this is the last Firefly installment that Joss will ever make, and in the end of things, someone always dies. There's a long literary tradition of that.

That's fine. But why did it have to be Wash? Forget the fact that he was my favourite character, the one I personally identified with the most and most drew me into the show.

Because he was the one who was happily married. Look at it.

The writer needs to show pain in some fashion. Character growth comes from pain. So someone dies or someone's heart gets broken or their trust ripped away. The viewers can feel it more if you show someone grieving on the screen. We feel worse about Tara dying because we know how this will make Willow feel. Zoe's anguish makes us mourn for Wash even more.

It's a literary technique that is very, very effective. We identify with the relationship and see all the happiness there that we hope to find in our own relationships. We feel connected to the couple. And then when they are torn apart, we feel the same loss and hurt.

But he does it all the time. Without fail. People only get together so he can break them apart.

Why? Why would some writer so good - and he is good. He can make us care like no one else - do this same thing over and over?

Maybe he's in love with the technique and feels it is the best tool in his arsenal of tear-jerkers and emotional manipulators. If so, he's not the writer he seems to be. The best writers can give you hope that even through all the turmoil and pain, the bright things in life still can happen. Overusing this technique strips Joss's work of that hope.

The other possibility is that Joss himself believes that all relationships end in pain. I know he's married with two kids, but this repetition of love ending in anguish suggests that he may actually believe it as a truism. Should a couple manage to stay together through all their inevitable stupidities and childishness, the world will tear them apart in some horrendous fashion.

Not a pretty thought. I prefer to believe that it's a technique he overuses, because then there's a chance he will grow out of it and learn how to give his characters growth and pain and still give the hope that long-lasting happiness is possible.

If it's the latter, there is no chance for change. And as his creations are so engaging and wonderful to watch, we will be subjected again and again to the idea that love always ends and can never be eternal.

Not an idea I care to believe in. And one that is not worthy of Hoban 'Wash' Washburn.

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It's up! What exactly I thought of Serenity and Joss Whedon's issues. It's spoiler-iffic, so don't read it unless you've seen the movie. Unless you don't care, in which case, go right ahead.... [Read More]

Tracked on October 5, 2005 10:48 AM