Sure, he was a dick. That doesn't make him not an innocent.
I dunno. He takes "dick" to whole new levels. He wanted to fucking ruin Buffy's life. That's fairly evil.
But when it comes to a matter of degrees like this, it's all about personal opinion, so to each his own.
That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell. -Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Again, I'm just not seeing the shallow characters in ... Firefly.
Me either. I thought just about all of the characters were either developed quite well in the show or when they weren't, it was because they had a story that the actor and writer knew, but he hadn't gotten to yet (like Book). I cared about the characters, every last one of them, even the ones like Jayne who you aren't supposed to like but just can't help liking.
Buffy I couldn't stand because I have a low tolerance for camp. But I never saw Firefly as campy or even attempting to be. The humor worked for me.
Bear in mind that we have the Tart with the Heart, the rugged ex-soldier capt, the brainless muscle and the preacher with the dark past. That's fairly cliched.
However, I didn't care and I'd be surprised if anyone else did. You show me a character show without that kind of pigeonholing and I'll show you a show that won't work terribly well. Games are patterns TV likes to give us proscribed themes that we can instantly get our head around and then be suprised and exhilirated when we our expectations are shocked. Jayne worked best for me when he was showing emotion : Mostly the shame and regret in two episodes. I thought his speech about the reavers with Kaylee was a perfect moment too. Also, when Mal just kills people, it turns on the head the idea that this guy will do the right thing always. You realise it's not about that. My one regret is we never got to see Book flipping out and killing people. Because you know that episode was coming, right ?
I think that's why everyone liked Wash really. He was the hardest to pigeon hole. Even River was more easily translated.
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