Don’t
get me wrong – I’m a fan of the whole Witches in Love thing, and in its day,
Willow/Tara offered critical representation that was sorely lacking on most of
TV. Liking that relationship, however,
doesn’t mean I can’t also love Willow’s first squeeze, a certain taciturn
guitar player. (Some spoilers for
Oz-related plots in seasons 2-4.)
Oz is, like
a number of characters I’ve highlighted on the blog, privileged by his supporting
player status. He doesn’t get weighed
down much by high drama elsewhere in the plot, and that helps him to avoid the
nearly inevitable pitfalls of being a major character in a genre series: temporary “dark” arcs, story-demanded
bone-headedness, and general moral failings.
TV shows need conflict, of course, and I love me some flawed characters,
but shouldering so much of that conflict means they more frequently wind up
doing things that make me want to smack them.
If Oz is easy to love, it’s in part because the story rarely has him
making those kinds of mistakes.
Instead,
he’s mostly just fun and awesome. He’s
an effortless “cool kid” in a band, but when I say effortless, I literally mean
“without effort.” He doesn’t try to be
cool and makes no attempt to be as socially desirable as he is. He’s utterly mellow, with a laconic
unflappability that aggravates higher-strung characters like Xander. After seeing Buffy stake a vampire for the
first time and being unceremoniously informed that Sunnydale is overrun with
demons, he simply replies, “It explains a lot.”
His nonchalant brevity is a regular source of humor in the face of apocalyptic
catastrophe, and his quiet confidence is always present but never insists upon
itself.
One of
his greatest qualities is, of course, his love for Willow. Like many fans, I was wholly won over by
sweet, shy, nerdy Willow in season 1 and wanted better for her than an
unrequited crush on a mostly tone-deaf Xander.
So, when Oz comes along and is instantly captivated with her (dressed as
an Eskimo in a party filled with skimpily-costumed girls – sweetest meet-cute
ever, and they don’t even meet in that scene,) he immediately scores some major
fandom points. After a slow-burn start,
Willow/Oz is a relationship that’s mostly left to its own devices in season
2. While everyone else is swinging from
one extreme to another and physically going to hell, Willow and Oz pretty much
get to be fun and cute, with her being all bubbly and adorable about having a
boyfriend and him being everything she needs to go “Xander who?” Even their biggest roadblock that season, the
revelation that Oz is a werewolf, is pretty easily dealt with once it’s out in
the open.
No comments:
Post a Comment