JOSS WHEDON: a summary of thought

This is Joss Whedon. He is a screenwriter, producer, director, and on occasion, a composer.

He works in Film, TV, Comic Books, and Online Media.

His work is mainly followed by small, radically dedicated groups, also known as cult fans.

His most famous works are: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Serenity, Angel, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and Dollhouse.

His popularity among Christian youth is skyrocketing.

He is an atheist.


Let's talk about his stuff. First, let me give you a few examples that you WILL be familiar with if you are not one of his--- cult followers.

Toy Story

One of the funniest kids movies of our time, voices by Tim Allen and Tom Hanks, with two very successful sequels. Woody and Buzz, two very different toys both vying for the affection of their owner Andy. Who doesn't like this movie?
"You-- are a child's plaything!"
"You are a sad, strange little man."
Whedon was one of the writers for this script.


The Lion King: Simba's Pride

The "not-as-famous" sequel to The Lion King. Simba's daughter Kiara falls in love with Scar's nephew Kovu who is being manipulated by the evil Zira who wants to kill Simba for what he did to Scar. The lullaby she sings to Kovu as a baby...
"Sleep, my little Kovu, let your dreams take wing. One day when you're big and strong, you will be a king. But I dream a dream so pretty that I don't feel so depressed 'Cause it soothes my inner kitty and it helps me get some rest."
Whedon wrote this song.

Now as for his stuff that's gained the most popularity and following, let's take a look.

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog (watch)

Written for the Internet during the writer's strike, this 45 minute short film spread across the world like fire, consuming as many eager fans as possible. The witty lyrics, catchy melodies, and hilarious performances by Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion pleased Whedon fans and non-Whedon fans alike. The story follows a wanna-be super villain who's in love with the girl of his dreams, who in turn is being swept off her feet by Captain Hammer, Dr. Horrible's arch nemesis. To get a taste of Joss Whedon before reading the rest of this blog, go ahead and watch this. Twice. Otherwise you might hate it.

Firefly / Serenity

Firefly: the show. Serenity: the movie that was made to wrap up the show once it was canceled after the first season. Just imagine the wild west in space in the future. War happened, the universe was united into the Alliance, and there were those who resisted and who still resist. Malclom Reynolds was one of those "Browncoats" who resisted in the war. His side lost. Now he captains a ship and together with his crew the do "odd jobs"/crime to stay alive and away from the Alliance. His crew consists of a young girl mechanic, an untrustworthy, not so bright muscle man, a married couple, the man being the best pilot around and the woman being his second in command, and a registered "companion" who rents out one of the side shuttles for her "business" (prostitute). They eventually pick up a "shepherd" and a brother and sister who are running from the law because the sister is a mind genius and the government was experimenting on her. They fly around, steal and smuggle stuff and somehow help people in the process. The universal trade language is Chinese. Interesting, huh?

Dollhouse

This was one of Whedon's less popular creations. A futuristic sci-fi world that revolved around underground "dollhouses" that were centers for "Actives", a line of robots who could be rented and programmed for any type of situation. Sort of a "robot-for-hire-temporarily" kind of deal.
Eliza Dushku played the main character, an "active" doing her job as she was on the path of self-realization and enlightenment.






Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Buffy, a 16-yr old girl, suddenly finds out that she has been chosen to be the new Slayer. One is chosen every generation, and when she dies, another takes her place. She moves to a new town, Sunnydale, California's very own "hellmouth" (one of the places where hell itself can open). She meets Rupert Giles, the school librarian, who is also her "Watcher", sent from England to be her guide and trainer. She makes two best friends, Willow Rosenburg, a Jewish nerd, and Xander Harris, an outgoing loser. Together the three of them slay vampires and kill demons and have drama in high school. These are the four main characters throughout the series. Xander goes through a girlfriend or two after getting over his love for Buffy and eventually ends up dating an ex-vengeance demon (who became human) named Anya. Willow falls in love with a werewolf named Oz (played by Seth Green) but he eventually leaves her for fear of hurting her. She becomes a powerful "Wicca" and eventually decides she is a Lesbian. Buffy falls in love with Angel, a vampire with a soul who lurks around and helps her defeat the powers of darkness. Angel used to be Angelus, the worst vampire of them all, until gypsies cursed him and gave him back his soul so he could regret all the atrocities he'd done. He then brooded for years until he saw Buffy and wanted to help her. Buffy and Angel are terribly in love, until the curse on Angel is broken. They sleep together, Angel has a moment of true happiness, and he loses his soul. He then goes on a rampage to try and kill everyone, including Buffy, who eventually has to kill him herself and send him to hell. Buffy goes through teen angst, fights more evil, dies once and comes back to life, but a new slayer rose. Now there's two. And the new slayer, Faith, has an evil streak. Buffy and Faith eventually become enemies, Angel returns from hell all broken and tortured (he'd been there for hundreds of years because time down there is apparently different than in the world). Faith is defeated, Angel leaves as to not become Angelus again (and also so he can go start his own show) Buffy dates a few guys, including a vampire who had been hers and Angel's worst enemy (named Spike) after she grows fond of him. (he had a chip embedded in his brain that made him unable to kill humans.) A military presence appeared in Sunnydale to fight demons, Buffy dated Riley, a military guy, but her commitment issues drove him away. A mystical force turned into a human being becomes Buffy's little sister Dawn, Buffy's mom dies of medical reasons, Buffy herself dies, Willow brings her back from heaven (where she was) with magic, sending Willow on a downward spiral and becoming addicted to dark dark magic. She almost kicks the habit when her girlfriend Tara gets shot and killed and Willow goes crazy with magics and murders a bunch of people.
The last season's main plot is the fight against "The First". This evil, as they describe it in the show, is the creator of all evil; the original evil-- evil itself. This idea is the basis for my thoughts on Joss Whedon's worldview-- the worldview that we are now eating up like candy.

First of all, a disclaimer: I really love Joss Whedon's stuff! (Except for Dollhouse. It's too weird.) The world's that he creates, as in Firefly or Buffy, are fascinating. His characters are lovable, funny, heroic and attractive. His stories have something for everyone to appreciate. But I want to point out a few things that I think we as Whedon fans need to realize so we don't let him influence our own worldview.

Whedon is somewhat inconsistent with his stance of if there is a "God" or not. In Firefly, the "Shepherd Book" character is never quite explained but is presented as a Bible Preacher. Whedon doesn't make fun of him or make him out to be a fool, but instead presents him in a good light. here's a portion of one of the shows where the genius sister (River) gets a hold of Shepherd's Bible.

Book: What are we up to, sweetheart?

River: Fixing your Bible.

Book: I, um... What?

River: Bible's broken. Contradictions, false logistics... doesn't make sense.

Book: No, no. You—you can't...

River: So we'll integrate non-progressional evolution theory with God's creation of Eden. Eleven inherent metaphoric parallels already there. Eleven. Important number. Prime number. One goes into the house of eleven eleven times, but always comes out one. Noah's ark is a problem.

Book: Really?

River: We'll have to call it "early quantum state phenomenon". Only way to fit 5,000 species of mammals on the same boat.

Book: River, you don't... fix the Bible.

River: It's broken. It doesn't make sense.

Book: It's not about... making sense. It's about believing in something. And letting that belief be real enough to change your life. It's about faith. You don't fix faith, River. It fixes you.

Whedon obviously presents this scene as "see, this whole Bible/God thing isn't scientific at all and it makes no sense if you're smart." Almost as if the only people who believe in that stuff are folks who don't think it out or reason it out. But at the same time, without even knowing it, Whedon presents the Gospel message in a small way. Think about how. In the movie Serenity, Malcolm holds onto the Shepherd Book as he dies from wounds. Mal says "I don't believe in God!" Book responds, "It doesn't matter. Just believe in something."

Let's take a look at an example from Buffy. The "First" is about to destroy the entire world with an army of ancient vampire monster things and Buffy is having a hard time defeating them. Once she gets beaten down a few times she resolves to win. this is what she says:
"There's only one thing on earth that is more powerful than evil. That's us."
A strong sense of human ability, no need for a higher power to fight for them. Earlier on, another character said this about evil.
"Once you see true evil there's some serious afterburn. You can't unsee what you saw."
This shows me that Whedon is willing to admit (and definitly believes in) there is a pure source of evil that has been around forever, that was not a created but a creator. Interesting. But he refuses to acknowledge the existance of a pure good, a counterpart to evil, God.
So how does Buffy defeat the "First"? Well, with her friends, by her own strength, they just had to figure it out. The idea at the end is that the "First" is everywhere, in everyone, and it is a natural part of life. Are there parallels to a sin nature here? Or possibly the fact that maybe we are all god or part of god?
Whedon tries so hard to explain his way around God. I know that he knows God exists. He has to. His stories revolve around him whether he wants them to or not.

A few other things to notice. The push of feminism, and how relationships only seem to "work out" or sail along smoothly if they are same-sex. Willow and Tara from Buffy seemed to be true to each other even through hard times. Buffy's relationships never worked, Xander and Anya ended up breaking up at the wedding altar, Giles was always unlucky or he went for shallow one nighters as did Mal in Firefly, but he always seemed to cold to date anyways. The Companion/Prostitute on Mal's ship had shifty clients until she had a woman client, and then it was all graceful and glamorous. Interesting to think about, that his view of a healthy relationship is the exact opposite of what it should be.

So why do we like his stuff? Why are so many people obsessed? Perhaps because it's funny, creative, and very realistic. People are tired of being fooled and conned while they watch shows, they don't like saying "yeah, like that could ever happen" anymore. Whedon grabs you where you're at, deals with issues that you have, and lives out your fantasies for you. But how much effect does his worldview have on yours? None? Or have you stopped to notice?

So check out his stuff. Or don't. Or re-evaluate your obsession with him. But realize that he is out there and he is gaining a following. He's writing and directing the new "Avenger's" movie and people are ecstatic. I think he's got great talent and I can't wait to see it. I want to see how he tries to hide God in this one. It's great when Atheists can't hold their own, isn't it?