I ask this question in all seriousness. I've seen all of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly and I've seen a trend in these shows. Almost every single one of his characters have parental issues.
The core characters:
Buffy: Mother wasn't a saint, after all she did throw Buffy out once, but was somewhat supportive, but dad was never there after the divorce.
Xander: Dad's a drunk and parents charged him rent to stay in the basement.
Willow: Parents don't even know she's there.
Faith: Don't know a thing about ehr parents though i suspect there'd be some issues with her rebelliousness. I guess we could count the Mayor as a kind of dad, but he wanted to kill and eat people.
Giles: Don't know a thing about his parents.
Angel: Emotionally abusive father.
Spike: His mother did love and support him until Spike sired her. He was the Mama's boy.
Wesley: We don't know a thing about his parents until he joins Angel but then we learn his father is also emotionally distant and abusive.
Cordelia: Don't know a thing about her parents except her father never paid taxes.
Gunn: nothing.
Gwynnifred: The sole exception, but her parents almost seem to go the other route and
spoil her. Did they ever discipline her at all? They were almost over supportive of her. But we really didn't see them very much to really learn about her childhood to know for certain.
Doyle: Nothing.
Connor: Hated his dad but was because of the twisted upbringing for vengeance. Plus living in a hell dimension didn't help either.
Basically, this is a trend that he tends to use with his main characters.
When it comes to Firefly, we really don't know anything about their Parents though, except for the Tams. Simon was much beloved by his parents and supported, even spoiled to some extent, but they couldn't give a damn about River.
I don't know if Comics count, but Book's father brutally beat him until he left at a young age. This is in the comic; "Serenity: A Shepherd's Tale" which goes into the background of Shepherd Book.
I haven't seen Dollhouse so I can't really say about that show. But I'd bet if given time those main characters would probably have some serious parental issues.
The reason why I think this is because many times writers will bring their own personal issues into a character they write for, So, since the majority of these characters have parental issues of some sort, it leads me to consider a couple of things. That Joss doesn't really know how to write parents, or has parental issues himself and might be trying to work them out.
Personally in his next project I hope he starts writing more rounded parents.
The core characters:
Buffy: Mother wasn't a saint, after all she did throw Buffy out once, but was somewhat supportive, but dad was never there after the divorce.
Xander: Dad's a drunk and parents charged him rent to stay in the basement.
Willow: Parents don't even know she's there.
Faith: Don't know a thing about ehr parents though i suspect there'd be some issues with her rebelliousness. I guess we could count the Mayor as a kind of dad, but he wanted to kill and eat people.
Giles: Don't know a thing about his parents.
Angel: Emotionally abusive father.
Spike: His mother did love and support him until Spike sired her. He was the Mama's boy.
Wesley: We don't know a thing about his parents until he joins Angel but then we learn his father is also emotionally distant and abusive.
Cordelia: Don't know a thing about her parents except her father never paid taxes.
Gunn: nothing.
Gwynnifred: The sole exception, but her parents almost seem to go the other route and
spoil her. Did they ever discipline her at all? They were almost over supportive of her. But we really didn't see them very much to really learn about her childhood to know for certain.
Doyle: Nothing.
Connor: Hated his dad but was because of the twisted upbringing for vengeance. Plus living in a hell dimension didn't help either.
Basically, this is a trend that he tends to use with his main characters.
When it comes to Firefly, we really don't know anything about their Parents though, except for the Tams. Simon was much beloved by his parents and supported, even spoiled to some extent, but they couldn't give a damn about River.
I don't know if Comics count, but Book's father brutally beat him until he left at a young age. This is in the comic; "Serenity: A Shepherd's Tale" which goes into the background of Shepherd Book.
I haven't seen Dollhouse so I can't really say about that show. But I'd bet if given time those main characters would probably have some serious parental issues.
The reason why I think this is because many times writers will bring their own personal issues into a character they write for, So, since the majority of these characters have parental issues of some sort, it leads me to consider a couple of things. That Joss doesn't really know how to write parents, or has parental issues himself and might be trying to work them out.
Personally in his next project I hope he starts writing more rounded parents.
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