Boyd

[snick_backup]

It's (Human) Character of Color Month over at still_grrr, to which I say, "Yay!" Maybe I'll finally get around to writing something about Forrest, which I've been threatening forever. At the very least, it ought to provide some Kendra fic for the housemate to read - she has a bit of a thing about Kendra.

But.

But one of the prompt characters for this week was Boyd from Dollhouse, and his very name made me (as penny_lane_42 says) all stabby. Rarrrrr!

I still haven't summed up how I feel about the last half of S2 of Dollhouse; I think I need to rewatch Epitaph Two first, for one thing. However, I can talk about Boyd just fine.

Way back in the beginning of S1, Boyd looked like a fairly interesting character. Empathetic, yet culpable like all Dollhouse employees; idealistic and yet fully cognizant of what sort of place he's hired himself out to. As dragonpaws pointed out to me early on, his relationship with Echo is like a darker, twisted version of the Watcher/Slayer relationship (or maybe W/S relationships as they are when the Slayer isn't Buffy).

Plus there were hints to all this backstory that we just know is sitting there under the surface. I can't remember how much of this is explicit and how much is implied, but the vibe I got was: ex-cop, morally compromised by something that went sour, possibly (per the phone call in "Belonging") with connections to a very dangerous element indeed.

And, there were moments of interest with many of the other characters: Topher trying to "save" him in "A Spy in the House of Love," his comments on Topher's "moral dilemma" in "Belonging," pretty much every interaction with Paul Ballard. (In fact, he was about the only character whose interaction with Ballard I actually enjoyed.)

So: morally conflicted! Sympathetic! Possible DH revolutionary! Interesting lense through which to see other characters!

And then, near the end of season two, we get our Big Surprise: Boyd is the evil mastermind of Rossum. Which, hmm. It's a bummer that this character we thought we liked turns out to be the big bad, but it could explain a lot of inexplicables if handled carefully.

Which: not. It only takes half an ep to confirm that Boyd's both clinically insane (and what does that development have to do with, well, anything about his character?) and a sillier, more over-the-top villain than even Caleb in Buffy S7. He smiles goofily and talks about Our Heroes as "family" and makes pretty much no sense whatever. He's a cartoon.

The writers killed his character. Suddenly, nothing that made him interesting is relevent anymore. All characterization is trumped by the nonsensical final twist. The only way I could ever enjoy even his early role on the show is to pretend that that final revelation never happened. And so, for the first time ever in a Whedon show, I find myself pointing and saying, "This is too stupid to be canon."

Comments

[quinara]

Yep, yep, totally agreed. I find it completely representative of S2 that Belonging made Boyd more interesting than he'd ever been to me before, yet the end of the season made him conversely completely and utterly uninteresting.

[snickfic]

Yep. I think Belonging was really the show's swan song. I enjoyed certain things that came later - mostly Bennett and Bennett/Topher - but as serious TV, Belonging was the last hurrah in all sorts of ways.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I still can't believe how good "Belonging" was and how nothing else ever measured up again. *sigh*

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

YES YES YES YES YES.

There are not enough yeses in the world and YES THIS MAKES ME STABBY, TOO!

My rage cannot be expressed in mere words. Here! Have a gif!



also:



On the other hand, E2 is genuinely awesome and full of great moments. WATCH IT.

[snickfic]

I did. A long time ago, actually, and have been trying to formulate my thoughts all this time. (I'm sorry for making you wait so long!) And my thoughts kind of come down to: some fun character moments (Alpha the lapsed psychotic! Topher.), but a complete let-down in terms of series themes. Like I said in the other DH post I posted just now, it feels like fan service - pleasant enough, but mostly a way to pat the viewers' hands and assure them that, despite screw-ups, the future won't be all that dire.

I'm sorry I don't share your squee. :(

However: yay gifs!

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay: I'd misread. I thought you hadn't watched it at all.

I'd given up on the themes long ago and I just wanted some real moments for my characters. So Topher, Alpha, Victor/Sierra, Mag and Zone, even Adelle--it was what I wanted. The whole "now look! We've magically fixed everything!" thing was pretty dumb. If I was still holding the show to high artistic standards...yeah, I would have been disappointed. But at that point I was over that and just wanted to see characters I care about have real moments. Does that make sense?

It's okay. I love you anyway.

I have soooo many gifs now. Especially of Buffy. They'll...probably be popping up pretty regularly.

[snickfic]

Oh, definitely, that totally makes sense. As character stuff, I think it does everything we could want it to do (although perhaps in a shorter space than we'd like - the Tony/Priya arc, in particular, felt really rushed to me). And I'd be totally okay with that if the show hadn't made such pretensions about being an Idea Show instead of a Character Show. I mean, if it's a character show, then for heaven's sake chuck Echo and Ballard out the window! And Boyd, too, since we clearly don't care about him as a character at all (or in any other way, as far as I can tell...).

So as an ep that I enjoyed and would be happy to rewatch, E2 is one of the better in the series. I guess I just still wanted more. Silly rabbit. *sigh*

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Agreed about the Tony/Priya arc. I remember that post-"Belonging" I felt really let down by the way their arc was going--it was all too happy and fluffy, and I was all, "What?" And then they made it more complex again in E2, and I LOVED it--they stuck to the "it's real love" thing, but showed that that wasn't enough if they weren't willing to work hard at it, which totally made me feel better about the fact that I was drawn to this couple when I hate the idea of soul mates--but it would have been so, so great if they'd had more time to explore it. *sigh*

I guess I'll have to write more fic.

Apparently, there are a lot of people who actually like Echo. I do not know who these people are, but they were voting on Fandom Steel Cage Match. And on off-site polls about fav characters. Blows my mind.

I don't blame you for wanting more at all. I just didn't let myself want more because I knew I'd be disappointed, you know?

And I'd be totally okay with that if the show hadn't made such pretensions about being an Idea Show instead of a Character Show. I never watch even actual Idea Shows as Idea Shows. I watch everything as Character Shows. ;D I guess I fail at TV? I can enjoy Idea Books or Idea Stories, even sometimes Idea Movies. But when it comes to TV, I want characters or I just don't care.

[quinara]

Apparently, there are a lot of people who actually like Echo.

*leaps in* I loved to hate/dislike Echo, which probably isn't the same, but I thought she was brilliant as someone who thought she was the saviour of mankind, but was nevertheless ridiculously self-centred and incapable of realising that other people had different wants/needs to her. (Her dollification+slaughter of Boyd and dealing with Ballard's death by sticking him in her head were wonderfully terrible.)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

See, I could see that. She still doesn't appeal to me, but I get where you're coming from. I was under the impression that for most of these people, though, it was a straight-up "I like this character" sort of thing.

As for the sticking-Ballard-in-her-head thing, WHAT. It was so ridiculous and so appropriate for their messed-up relationship, but I couldn't figure out if they were playing it straight or not. If I was supposed to think that was actually romantic and a good solution then DO NOT WANT. But if it was supposed to be totally messed up and really kind of stupid, then it's okay with me. Because it was messed up and stupid, just like them!

[quinara]

Yeah, I thought that about the steel cage match thing too, which confuses me. (I'm not sure I've found any straight-up Echo fans elsewhere.)

Because it was messed up and stupid, just like them!

Exactly! I think Ballard's storyline was probably the best in the series (at least if you interpret it my way) - I thought Mellie's suicide was brilliantly on the mark as well, pointing out that she was always artificially created to make him happy, unlike the complete person Ballard's imprint allowed him to be. (I still can't get over his presumptuousness of saying to her that it was all right that they're both imprints...!)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Ballard. What a bastard.

Poor Mellie!

[quinara]

*huggles Mellie*

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I hope Miracle Laurie gets a great career, because I find her very charming and engaging. Also: beautiful.

[quinara]

Yes yes yes. *nods*

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

So much "yes"!

I have to say that I watched because the series was Joss. There were certainly moments I liked, but the whole thing? Meh. The Boyd thing was a huge letdown, and I won't even get started on the rest of the plot twists... It's the only JW show I have no desire to rewatch, ever.

[snickfic]

What you said. There were some individual moments I like a lot, and I might in a couple of years go back through and rewatch the whole thing without all the hiatuses and season breaks, just to see how I feel about it, but at the end of the day it's just left me cold.

[silverusagi]

The Boyd thing made absolutely no sense to me.

[snickfic]

Yeah. It was quite bizarre.

[next_to_normal]

Word. Boyd's big reveal totally ruined it for me. I'm kind of torn between wanting to rewatch it until it makes sense and never wanting to watch it again because of the bad taste it left.

[snickfic]

I'm pretty sure no amount of rewatching could ever make it make sense. It just... gah. And now I can never read or write fic of Boyd at any time in the series in which he's anything more than a cypher, because my brain won't let me just discard canon but I can't possibly make sense of it, either.

BLEAH!

[next_to_normal]

Booo! Fortunately, I wasn't really itching for Dollhouse fic, so I can just ignore it and move on with my life, lol.

[snickfic]

It's not a show that seems to call out for fic. I actually have a crossover in the works, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the only DH fic I ever write, other than a drabble now and again.