Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Dr. Horrible Controversy

Spoiler Alert: Don't read any further if you don't want the ending to Dr. Horrible ruined.

As a blogger at another site put it, "there's been some pushback on Dr. Horrible over the fact that he's [Whedon] once again killed over a female love interest in order to provide character development for male characters."Check out this post about some criticism of Penny's death in Act III--and Joss's response.

You can also read this post on feminism in Dr. Horrible. The writer makes some smart points, --although I must say that the lack of a female heroine isn't necessarily antifeminist. And, although I know people have argued about this for years, it doesn't make much sense to me to give Whedon a hard time about feminism since he is, after all, the man who gave us Buffy.

I have to admit that I never saw the twist coming and therefore appreciated the turn that the musical took. In fact, I think it's very important to the musical that neither man appreciated or really knew Penny--that that is something both Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer get wrong. However, I have an almost irrational soft-spot for all things Whedon and am not the fairest critic.

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