Not Fade Away

 "Personally, I kind of want to slay the dragon."

Can you believe it's been ten years since the spinoff of the greatest show ever ended its five-year run? I wished it had been longer. The rumored plans for the sixth season sounded great and I really wanted to see what Amy Acker would've done with Illyria with a full season. Oh well.

Birthday Boy and Killer: Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon turns 48 today and do we even need to mention what an insane year or so it's been for him? Let's just spew out some key numbers here: $1.4 billion worldwide, $591.2 million domestic, $200+ million opening weekend, 93% Rotten Tomatoes ratings. Yeah, suffice it to say whedon is on top of the Hollywood world right now and as happy as I am for him obviously I'm not ready for him to become "Joss Whedon, the director of The Avengers" as opposed to "Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That may have sounded a little hipterish of me, but not really since I don't at all begrudge him his mainstream success (just the opposite) and I don't regard myself a truer fan of Whedon since I was a fan long before The Avengers. Whedon is for all and may he have many, many more opportunities to show us his mad genius.

Speaking of his mad genius, I think it's common knowledge how much Whedon enjoys putting his characters (and fans) through a ringer including killing off beloved characters and breaking off relationships. You see that in The Avengers where 70% of the plot includes Loki trying to break the superheroes up and of course that one death which I won't spoil for the 3 people in the world who hasn't seen the movie yet. And so with that said, as I promised last year, here's my list of Top 10 Whedon Deaths. Spoiler Alert... obviously.

First, just want to list some honorable mentions. Penny's demise in Dr. Horrible makes you wonder how they'll do a sequel. Jesse's death in episode 2 of Buffy should've clued us in on the depths of Whedon's sadism. Book, Wesley, and Topher's deaths in Serenity, Angel, and Dollhouse respectively made my heart hurt considering I actually thought they'd make it out alive somehow. And of course that one Avengers death that made me shake my head. See the entire list after the jump...

Birthday Boy: Joss Whedon

Mad genius Joss Whedon, aka creator of my favorite show of all time, celebrates his 47th birthday today and while he was unable to pursue his dream of making a Wonder Woman film, he is quite busy writing and directing the much-anticipated film The Avengers. His long-completed horror film The Cabin in the Woods is also finally set to release this Halloween. He also received the Vanguard Award from the Producers Guild of America last year.

In honor of Joss, I decided last night to come up with a list of my top ten favorite characters from his various shows (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse) aka the Whedonverse*. Apart from my top pick, I found it nearly impossible to choose amongst the wonderful characters he has created throughout the years. I was debating listing 47 characters for his age, but a) that's just silly and b) that probably wouldn't have it that much easier.

*Yes, I know he's done more. There's Dr. Horrible, his other films, and his comic-book stuff, but as this is already a difficult task, I've decided to limit myself accordingly.

So presented with very little commentary, my Top Ten Whedonverse Characters:


1. Willow Rosenberg - As I've said before, she's my favorite and will always be my favorite.
2. Faith Lehane - Part of it is Eliza Dushku inherent hotness, but how can you not love someone whose motto is "Want. Take. Have."?
3. Dr. Simon Tam - While River is the heart of the show, Simon is her keeper his relationship with her is just touching.
4. Cordelia Chase - Apart from Willow, her character growth/arc is one of the best.
5. Daniel "Oz" Osborne - A werewolf in love, do I REALLY need to say more? Because he didn't.
6. Buffy Summers - Too low? Perhaps, but I'm usually not drawn to the MAIN CHARACTER. Still, she's an automatic part of this list.
7. Winifred "Fred" Burkle/Illyria - Cheating since this is two characters? Probably, but tough since I love them both.
8. Anya Jenkins/Anyanka - Sigh. I was devastated by her death and her arc really.
9. Victor/Anthony - Enver Gjokaj was like a chameleon making this character oh so fun to watch.
10. Kaylee Frye - She has great taste in ships and men. Need I say more?

Ugh. That was really hard. Remind me to never ever do that again. Though as soon as I started writing this list, another list came to my head: Top 10 Dead Whedonverse Characters. That should be loads of fun. Maybe next year.

The Ten Year Old Angel

Can you believe that it's been ten years since the spinoff of the greatest show ever premiered and developed into a not-too-shabby show itself?

Man, I feel old all of a sudden.