Friday 18 January 2008

You Monster! Why Joss Whedon Kills.... Kill #2

He Killed Off Allen Francis Doyle!

Who Was He?

He was your buddy, an Irish rogue with a fondness for drink and women. You see? Some stereotypes are valid. He worked alongside Angel and Cordelia during the first series of the vampire’s self-named show, aiding and winding up the others with his…distinct sense of humour. What we all wanted, though, was for him to finally work up the courage to ask Cordelia out on a date and stop dithering around all the time. This is the one trait he doesn’t seem to share with the Irish – whereas any other Irishman can go out and get any girl he wants on the basis of his nationality (seriously, it’s like a super-power they have or something), Doyle never did too well with the girls. Well, there was his ex-wife, but when she remarried her new husband tried to eat Doyle’s brains, which probably didn’t help his confidence levels.

How Did He Die?

Doyle died as a frickin’ hero, y’all! A shady organisation got hold of a weapon of some kind that could do bad things to people, and the only way of stopping it meant killing yourself in the process. Angel, always a sucker for a dramatic death scene, jumped at the chance to die again, but Doyle punched him out and took the heroic death for himself. Angel’s probably still pissed about it now.

Why Did He Die?

There is no reason for why Doyle died except that Joss Whedon likes to mess with us. It’s hard to invoke the JOSS WANT CRUSH HAPPYNESS rule, because Doyle and Cordelia never got into a relationship, but the threat came from a monster who is barely remembered, in general. So why would you kill off one of the three main characters, especially the one who everyone liked most? Because Joss Whedon doesn’t like you. You annoy him. You sit there, a can of beer in your hand, and you criticise his space westerns? You don’t go to see his movies? Well then, don’t expect him to let your favourite characters live, you jerks! You make him sick. These things happened after Doyle got killed, but I honestly can’t think of any other reason except for that Joss has a time machine and went to see how his future works out, only to realise that his next two fantastic pieces of drama went down in flames – quite frankly, you brought Doyle’s death on yourselves.

Joss, You Monster! Rating:

8. This one still smarts.

2 comments:

  1. Doyle has to die to set the stakes for the entire series. If a title credits character can die, anything can happen, thus investing more meaning into everything that comes after.

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  2. Well... there is that too, but then you ruin my "Joss Whedon hates the general public" theory.

    Didn't he do the same thing to Tara on Buffy, by the way? I think she was first put on the main credits on the very episode she was killed off.

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