You can't take the sky from me

[ivyfic]

I love Joss Whedon.

I hate Joss Whedon.

I hate when he breaks my heart. And he does, over and over again. But it's only because he is willing to do that - and do it without remorse, hesitation or sap, in the most brutal way possible - that his stories are so good. I know he will not hold back from anything, there is no place his stories won't go, so I can't become detached from the story or the characters. It is so easy to get complacent in most other shows. Oh look, they're backed up against a wall - insurmountable odds, impossible enemy, blah blah blah. But in most shows, I know they're going to get out. There's no question. So it's boring. It's just flashy special effects. When Joss backs his characters up against a wall, you don't know that any of them are going to make it out, so you feel as desperate and afraid as they are. And this only works as long as he continues to be willing to do things the fans will hate.

Two sides of the same coin, but damn. Watching Joss shows I can see why most creators don't have the guts to pull what he pulls.

I love how everything in this movie was both surprising and inevitable. With each revelation you could hear the click of perfect continuity. That's why Whedon is a master at story-telling. Every answer he gives is perfectly satisfying; he never cheats the audience (though he tricks us all the time).

I will have more specific thoughts later. Now I just need to go cry over Wash.