Fred and protective men

[deird1]

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...

Comments

[snowpuppies]

Hmmm. That does look like a pattern to me. Never really thought about it, but it's very telling.

And actually not unlikely for someone who's been in traumatic circumstances like being a cow in Pylea.

[deird1]

Indeed.

I think it ties in with the way she goes absolutely nuts and rageful whenever she's feeling betrayed. (Note, for instance, Fred's taser-happy reaction to Connor at the start of season 4, compared to Gunn's reaction.)

[snowpuppies]

Oh, definitely. She really needs some therapy. :)

Then again, so does the rest of the Jossverse.

[deird1]

Very true. :)

[next_to_normal]

Now I kinda want someone to write Buffyverse group therapy fic... lol.

[snowpuppies]

Hee! I'm working on (slowly) a series of Sunnydale therapist case notes. :P

[next_to_normal]

Woohoo!