deird_lj

I was talking about Fred over at

blackfrancine's journal, and (among other things) said the following:

Fred is a survivalist. Utterly. She will do whatever she can to keep herself safe. (Being enslaved in another dimension will do that to you.)
She latches on to the most protective guy. (Starting with Angel, who saved her in Pylea. Then she finds Angel and Lilah together, and Angel becomes unsafe, so it switches to the others.) Seriously - every single time she changes who she's interested in, it's because the Protectiveness Quotient has just changed.

I thought I'd give a brief summary of Fred's relationships, just to show you what I mean.

in Pylea: Angel rescues her.
She promptly develops a crush on Angel.

Carpe Noctem: Angel (or rather, Marcus in Angel's body) seduces Lilah, and Fred walks in on them. Angel has proven himself to be unsafe.
She now turns her attention to Wes and Gunn.

Billy: Wes goes nuts and tries to kill her. Gunn saves her.
Gunn is clearly the most protective guy available. She develops an interest in him, and dismisses Wes as a relationship option.

Supersymmetry: Professor Seidel is evil and must be stopped! Fred must protect herself at all costs!
Gunn tries to stop her protecting herself. Wes helps her protect herself.
Gunn also proves himself to be different to what she thought he was (ie - "Charles doesn't have it in him" to kill anyone). Different = untrustworthy = unsafe.
Fred promptly starts wanting to get out of her relationship with Gunn, and getting much more interested in Wes.

Calvary: Wes has been sleeping with Lilah! Ack! Lack of safety and trustworthiness!
Fred promptly loses interest in every single guy in the Fang Gang.

Conviction: Knox helps her with stuff. He's not particularly safe, but he's also not unsafe...
Fred starts going out with Knox.

Lineage: Wes kills his own father (or so he thinks) to protect Fred. He is supersafe!!!!
Fred instantly falls for Wes.

Call me crazy, but there seems to be a pattern there...

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From:

gingerwall.livejournal.com

I don't have anything thinky to add, just... wow. I never noticed it that way. I'm going to go ponder the meaning of that for a while.

I wonder if the writers constructed her relationships that way on purpose, or if it just kind of happened subconsciously based on what kind of character they thought she was.

pocochina.livejournal.com

The AtS dichotomy here is really disturbing, at this glance: men are either unsafe, or protective. Which, "safe" should always be an available baseline for a relationship regardless of protectiveness, but Fred doesn't seem to be able to find a genuine partner. I think that's part of what I really enjoy about Supersymmetry. Wesley helps her. He doesn't step in and decide to do stuff for her.

Conviction: Knox helps her with stuff. He's not particularly safe, but he's also not unsafe...
Fred starts going out with Knox.

It also never seemed to me like she was particularly into Knox, if that makes sense. He seemed like fun, and maybe in the immediate aftermath of the mindwipe that seemed okay (and IRL it is okay and perfectly healthy to just give something a try, just not in Fred's world), but as soon as their current reality (which is still very dangerous) sets back in, it's not enough any more.

(Also hi! :))

deird1

I think that's part of what I really enjoy about Supersymmetry. Wesley helps her. He doesn't step in and decide to do stuff for her.

Agreed. I rather like that.

(Hi!)