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Laura e. Crook

~ writer by day, batgirl wannabe by night

Laura e. Crook

Tag Archives: tv: buffy

Whedon Wednesday: Darla

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by Laura Crook in Blog

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Tags

joss whedon, tv: angel, tv: buffy, Whedon Wednesday

This child, Angel. It’s the one good thing we did together.  The only good thing. You make sure to tell him that.

Darla is one of the strangest, most polarizing characters in the Buffyverse. She was introduced as a heartless, bloodthirsty vampire–a creature who fed on humans without thought or remorse. She was a monster. She was beyond redemption, beyond saving.

Except… she wasn’t. Not in the end.

Darla had the most chances at life, and she made the most of it. Her first life ended in 1609, when the Master turned her into a vampire. Her second life ended almost 400 years later–staked in an empty night club by the closest thing to the love of her life. Her third life began in Los Angeles and ended when, slowly dying from syphilis, she was turned into a vampire again. Darla’s cat-like lives ended for good when she sacrificed herself to allow her infant son (an impossibility and a miracle!) to live.

Darla was, more than any other character in Angel, simply a pawn for the Powers That Be. She was recruited without her knowledge (or will) to become a major player in the coming apocalypse–by giving birth to the son she shared with Angel.

Darla lived (and died, and lived) for over 400 years, but the only selfless act she committed–the only good thing she ever did–was love her unborn son so much she gave her (undead) life for the chance that he could live.

It seems strange to classify a monster as one of the most loving and selfless characters in the Buffyverse, but after all: when you live on the Hellmouth, nothing is as it seems.

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Whedon Wednesday: Tara Maclay

01 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by Laura Crook in Blog

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Tags

joss whedon, tv: buffy, Whedon Wednesday

Your shirt…

The greatest tragedy of Tara’s death wasn’t that she was murdered. It wasn’t that she was killed by a man who was trying to kill her friend. It wasn’t that she was young, or that she was beautiful, or that she had so much more life to live. The greatest tragedy of Tara’s death was that she had only just reconciled with Willow.

Tara was the purest of all the characters on Buffy. She was kind and gentle and sweet, and in the end she was the only one who was never seduced by evil. Maybe that, more than anything else, meant she had to die. Maybe the inhabitants of Sunnydale can only live on the Hellmouth for so long until it takes over them completely. Maybe if Tara hadn’t been accidentally murdered by an evil man with a heart full of hate she would have turned evil, like Angel, like Buffy, like Willow herself.

Or maybe if Tara had lived she would have stayed pure, and kept Willow pure alongside her. Maybe if Tara had lived they would have saved the world, and moved to Scotland and raised magic sheep in the Highlands. Maybe they would have explored the world, the universe, the dimensions beyond, and return to Buffy when she needed them. Maybe they would have grown old together (always together), and raised cats like Miss Kitty Fantastico. Maybe they would become old witches, living together in a decrepit mansion on a small island where the neighborhood children wouldn’t be able to decide whether they’re afraid of the old witches or in awe of them (or perhaps a little bit of both).

And then, after they had saved the world more than anyone has ever saved the world (except perhaps Buffy), they would lie down together and depart for the next great adventure. And Tara would still have died in Willow’s arms, and she would still have died knowing what it was like to be loved, but it would be a kinder death, a gentler death, a sweeter death. A death to fit Tara herself.

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Whedon Wednesday: The Kickoff!

20 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by Laura Crook in Blog

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Tags

joss whedon, television, tv: angel, tv: buffy, tv: dollhouse, tv: dr. horrible, tv: firefly, Whedon Wednesday

Anyone who has had a passing conversation with me knows how deeply I adore Joss Whedon–it goes down to my very core as a writer. And anyone who has ever heard of Joss Whedon knows what he’s famous (or dare I say infamous?) for–more than creating strong female characters, more than writing sci-fi television, more than revamping (pun intended) the teen vampire genre almost a decade before Twilight came along and ruined everyone’s day.

Joss Whedon is famous for killing his characters.

You know it, I know it, every Whedonite who has ever cried themselves to sleep because their favorite character was brutally shuffled off this mortal coil knows it. So this is a place to say goodbye to all the characters we loved (and lost). All the heroes, the villains, the heros-turned-villains-turned-heroes-once-more who tugged at our hearts and made us laugh. The characters who became friends, who became family, who we will always mourn.

I am joined in this great adventure with my sister, Megg, my friend Rachel and my best friend Elspeth. So tune in each Wednesday to see who is paying tribute to the characters whose deaths, while sad, still served a narrative purpose. And what more can a fictional character ask?

I will update an archive post every week with links to the respective posts and their authors. If you would like to follow along on this journey, please feel free to follow Megg and Rachel’s blogs. Elspeth’s posts can be found here.

See you on the other side! You can’t stop the signal.

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Five Things Friday: Five (real) eulogies for five (fictional) characters

01 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by Laura Crook in Blog

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Tags

book: harry potter, book: the hunger games, Five Things Friday, Ramen, tv: buffy

For this week’s Five Things Friday, I’m reposting a piece I wrote for Ramen, the lovely Caro’s zine. Enjoy!

5) Tara McClay – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
You know what? I just really hate Kennedy. If Oz is going to go off and be a werewolf in Tibet or something, then there’s only one person I want to give Willow sweet lovin’, and she’s not a bratty, brunette vampire slayer.

4) Denny Duquette – Grey’s Anatomy
When you’ve watched nearly every character played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan die, you start to think “who did he piss off?” And you laugh, because he’s basically a poor man’s Sean Bean. Then Izzie walks into his hospital room, dressed for the prom, and it’s not funny anymore. Suddenly he’s not Jeffrey Dean Morgan, he’s Denny. Denny, who played dirty Scrabble and flirted with Izzie and asked her to spend the rest of her life with him, only he spent the rest of his life with her instead.

3) Primrose Everdeen – The Hunger Games
The greatest tragedy of Prim’s death is that she was only thirteen. That she was blown up in an accident caused by a man she had known her entire life. That she died while her sister watched. Or maybe the greatest tragedy of all was that Prim never knew a world outside of the totalitarian regime under which she was raised. She never knew a life without fear, without violence, without the Hunger Games. She never got a chance to grow up. Become a doctor. Fall in love. She was a pointless sacrifice in a bloody war.

2) Fred Weasley – Harry Potter
I have long believed that it’s a sin to kill a sibling, but it’s even worse to kill a twin. When Fred died, half of George died with him. The half that laughed, that invented magical candy, that schemed and plotted and played Quidditch. And what’s left? Just a broken, scarred man remembering a distant time when his life made sense. Perhaps it would have been kinder to let George die alongside his brother in the final battle, because his world ended that night anyway.

1) Remus Lupin – Harry Potter
There comes a moment when you’re crying and someone asks you why, so you tell them that Remus Lupin died. They look at you strangely, because you’ve had four years to mourn, but four years will never be enough. Sometimes you wish J. K. Rowling killed Arthur Weasley in “Order of the Phoenix,” but only if it means that Lupin and Tonks would survive, and raise their son, and go to Sunday dinners at the Potter’s. Maybe someday Lupin would go back to teaching. Maybe someday they’d have another son (and name him Sirius), and he’d get Sorted into Gryffindor (or Hufflepuff). Then, finally, when Remus is old and even more grey, he would become the only Marauder to die at a ripe old age. Because his life was filled with too much tragedy to die at 38.

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Whedon Wednesday – The Archives

19 Saturday May 2012

Posted by Laura Crook in Blog

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

joss whedon, television, tv: angel, tv: buffy, tv: dollhouse, tv: dr. horrible, tv: firefly, Whedon Wednesday, whedon wednesday sticky post

Whedon Wednesday is a recurring collaborative feature consisting of written eulogies for the many characters who have met their deaths in a show or film created by Joss Whedon. This is place to say goodbye to all the characters we loved (and lost). The heroes, the villains, the heros-turned-villains-turned-heroes-once-more who tugged at our hearts and made us laugh. The characters who became friends, who became family, who we will always mourn.

The other collaborators include my sister Megg, and my friends Rachel and Elspeth.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Jenny Calendar (Passion, 2×17) – Rachel
Kendra Young (Becoming Part One, 2×21) – Megg
Angel (Becoming Part Two, 2×22)
Joyce Summers (The Body, 5×16)
Buffy Summers (The Gift, 5×22) – Rachel
Tara Maclay (Seeing Red, 6×19) – Laura
Jonathan Levinson (Conversations with Dead People, 7×07)
Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins (Chosen, 7×22)
William the Bloody, Spike (Chosen, 7×22) – Rachel

ANGEL
Allen Francis Doyle (Hero, 1×09)
Darla (Lulliby, 3×09) – Laura
Lilah Morgan (Calvary, 4×12)
Cordelia Chase (You’re Welcome, 5×12)
Winifred “Fred” Burkle (A Hole in the World, 5×15)
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Not Fade Away, 5×22)
Lindsay McDonald (Not Fade Away, 5×22)

FIREFLY
Tracy (The Message, 1×12)
Hoban Washburne, “Wash” (Serenity)
Shepherd Derrial Book (Serenity)

DOLLHOUSE
Whiskey (Epitaph One, 1×13)
Bennett Halverson (Getting Closer, 2×11)
November (The Hollow Men, 2×12)
Boyd Langton (The Hollow Men, 2×12)
Paul Ballard (Epitaph Two, 2×13)
Topher Brink (Epitaph Two, 2×13)

DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG
Penny (1×03)

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TV Watch List

01 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by Laura Crook in Blog

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Tags

joss whedon, reviews: tv, television, tv: angel, tv: buffy, tv: firefly, tv: game of thrones, tv: legend of korra, tv: leverage, tv: parks and rec, tv: sherlock, tv: vampire diaries

I watch a lot of TV. My list is ever changing, based on what gets renewed, cancelled, picked up, or jumps the shark.

Not everything on this list is particularly high class television (though I do pride myself on being an arbiter of taste). Not everything on this list is something I watch every week–or even shows I’m completely up-to-date on. These are just the shows I enjoy, the shows that I’m familiar with, the shows that I love to discuss.

DRAMA
The Blacklist (NBC)
Castle (ABC)
Criminal Minds (CBS)
Doctor Who (BBC)
Elementary (CBS)
Forever (ABC)
The Flash (CW)
The Following (FOX)
Game of Thrones (HBO)
Gotham
(FOX)
Grimm (NBC)
How to Get Away with Murder (ABC)
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD (ABC)
Orphan Black (BBC America)
Sherlock (BBC)
Sleepy Hollow
(FOX)
Teen Wolf (MTV)

SITCOMS
Brooklyn 99
(FOX)
Community (Yahoo TV #sixseasonsandamovie)
The Mindy Project (FOX)
Parks and Recreation (NBC)

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♣ Laura’s Epic TV Watch List

I watch a ridiculous amount of TV. A full list can be found here.

♣ Weekly Features

Tamora Tuesday
Five Things Friday

♣ People I Love

  • Caro Griffin
  • Crook's Crossing
  • Megg Joosten
  • Pink Streaks
  • Rachel Pierce

♣ Places I Go

  • Forever Young Adult
  • The Bloggess
  • The Mary-Sue

♣ Archive

♣ Tags

adaptations amy sherman-palladino anxiety book: daughter of the lioness book: fire book: graceling book: harry potter book: protector of the small book: provost's dog book: song of the lioness book: the hunger games book: the immortals character showdown chicago christmas depression family film: alien film: prometheus film: the avengers Five Things Friday guest post joss whedon los angeles movie spotlight music poems politics Ramen reviews: books reviews: film reviews: tv running Sara Zarr tamora tuesday television tv: angel tv: buffy tv: bunheads tv: dollhouse tv: dr. horrible tv: firefly tv: game of thrones Whedon Wednesday writing

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