I think he came closest to getting it right with Zoe.
Unsurprisingly married to the Whedon-stand-in.
I don't know...does River only look bad in a continuum from Willow-River-Fred?
If you just took River's arc, she winds up going from no-agency genius victim to muy-agency Powergirl.
I loved Bloody Fist in the Air Fred, and was a little sorry that went away.
Also, River is this wierd Buffy/Drusilla amalgam to me, while Kaylee is the Willow. And Zoe seems unique and different from anything he has done before, and frankly from anything done anywhere.
Zoe is Oz. Only taller. And hotter. With guns.
Raar.
I hated Pylea, but LOVED Bloody Fist in the Air Fred. LOVED. I loved her smarts, her fears, her self-awareness, her crush on Angel, her unconventional thinking, her bravery. And then... I don't think we ever saw that character again after Pylea. We just saw a caricature of some of those traits as played by the same actress. Which was really sad.
Also, what Sophia said about Firefly.
Wow, She really is. Hmmm. I had never thought of that.
Double posting, but..
I feel that Mal is the Buffy of the series, while River is the Buffy of the movie. And perhaps River would have become the Buffy of the series, given enough time....
And now I am thinking of Spike saying "pacey, you blind idoit... can't you see she'll never love you!" because I am mapping tv show characters to tv show characters.
Teppy, could you please whitefont the Season 8 stuff? It's not been in the collections yet.
If you just took River's arc, she winds up going from no-agency genius victim to muy-agency Powergirl.
I can't speak too much about Firefly. But thinking, "Oh, look: a cute, socially awkward girl who babbles childishly but is a genius. Again." was one of the reasons I gave up on it pretty quickly. I'd already had more than enough of that character. At that point it felt like a personal fetish that I'd rather not know about.