Thank you, David! I tried to come up with that sort of post about three times, and just gave up in patheticness.

Take it from another angle. Buffy's gone to enormous lengths to explore her Slayerness, Willow's done the same for her witchiness. I think it can be safely said that when it comes to inherent aspects of themselves that ME characters have, any lengths necessary become (at least at the time) acceptable.

I honestly don't think you can even really compare the two situations, the Oz/Veruca thing and the Willow/Xander thing. They're from very, very different places involving different emotions and character personalities. One of the aspects of the Oz/Veruca scene in WAH was the fierceness of Oz. He's...well, laconic. In a sense, it's like he's punishing himself for being what he is by being with Veruca. I think they had the definition of a punishing kiss. And while Veruca thought she was getting ever closer to Oz, he was all the farther away.

Yeah, but there were other ways to explore his wolfy nature than by fucking. I think the betrayal is on a par with the Willow/Xander kissyface. However, I really liked the Oz/Veruca story because it was a great metaphor for what happens at that age--testing one's limits, exploring the dark places inside oneself, acting selfishly--Sex is powerful mojo and when it is new to us its pull is even stronger. We need to to test (and soemtimes step over) those boundaries to know what it's like and the pain it causes ourselves and others so we can grow up.

I agree with everyone! Pathetic much. The complexity of the relationships combined with the soap opera format worked beautifully in BtVS. This show had all the classic soap elements but with actual complex and compelling characters. I will miss it so.

IMO due to the complexity of Willow's heartbreak, is essentially why she chose Tara over Oz when given the option. Oz had taken her heart and did the Mexican hat dance on it, while Tara had done nothing but attempt to nurture and care. I was devastated when she didn't chose Oz at the time, but looking back at Wild at Heart, I can now see why. She lost Oz under the most crushing of circumstances, one being that he cheated (personal pet peeve) and another that it was virtually out of her control. She could do nothing to help him so the pain she felt, I feel, goes beyond simply cheating.

Besides, Oz coming back that one time (and briefly for the dream sequence of Restless) and never to be seen or heard from again was mostly just a final twisty knife thing to me because he remains to be one of my most favoritest Buffyverse characters and seeing him go was even harder than seeing Angel go because as someone said upthread, Angel went to the magical place of His Own Show, while Oz just went off into the moonlight. So tragic. So much left unsaid.

And the only reading I can take from that scene, as much as I love Oz, is that he was choosing hairy-gorilla sex with a girl he didn't even like over Willow.

I actually think Oz was doing the traditional Scooby action of not mentioning the problem to anybody while he tried to work it out himself. His motives for doing so are obviously complex (hence all the posts), but his isolation is traditonal when it comes to our heroes.

So much left unsaid.

To me, that's pretty much Oz in a nutshell.

When Oz first found out he was a werewolf, he tried to keep it a secret, didn't he? Back in "Phases," he seemed pretty nervous when Xander was talking about knowing who the werewolf must be, inasmuch as Oz ever seems nervous. And Willow wouldn't have found out at all if she hadn't come over when he had the chains out.

So I guess it's not surprising that he kept wolf-related things to himself later on. Just kinda disappointing, because otherwise he was pretty damn perfect.

If Veruca wasn't a werewolf he wouldn't have strayed.

And?

Would he have boffed any werewolf that walked by? I never got that impression. Then it's not a lycanthropic compulsion.

No one's going to be unfaithful unless there's someone they want to boff.

Has this article, The Buffy Paradigm Revisited been linked to?

I seem to remember at least one of the articles it refers to, but not it itself.

I didn't like it. I think it was wrong about the show itself (hi tech worked against The Judge just fine), power doesn't always corrupt (hey, Buffy's done okay), and all of the characters do not feel called to their work.

So I cannot care about her conclusions.

I actually think Oz was doing the traditional Scooby action of not mentioning the problem to anybody while he tried to work it out himself. His motives for doing so are obviously complex (hence all the posts), but his isolation is traditonal when it comes to our heroes.

Oh, I agree it's a Scooby tradition and that Oz's reasons for what he did are a big complicated mess, but there was still a choice, and it is most certainly one in which he valued his wolfish connection to Veruca, and the potential experiences possible because of that, over his relationship with Willow.