This was a wonderful essay. I never really understood the Fred/Wesley relationship, mostly due to not understanding Wesley's attraction to her. Except Fred, all of Wesley's love interests have been extroverted, outspoken, often bitchy (in the good sense of the word) women: Cordelia, Virginia, and Lilah. So Wesley's enduring attraction to Fred always puzzled me, but your essay let me see some of the reasons why these two characters would be drawn to one another.
I also particularly enjoyed your analysis of Fred and why she chose Gunn over Wesley in S3: her trust in Wesley as a protector was broken due to the events of Billy so she turned to Gunn as a romantic partner. Sometimes in S5 Fred seemed to be a Mary Sue version of herself, someone completely unrelated to the scared, mentally fragile cave girl from Pylea, and it was nice to read your analysis of her progression from cave girl to strong woman in S5.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-08-27 06:53 pm (UTC)I also particularly enjoyed your analysis of Fred and why she chose Gunn over Wesley in S3: her trust in Wesley as a protector was broken due to the events of Billy so she turned to Gunn as a romantic partner. Sometimes in S5 Fred seemed to be a Mary Sue version of herself, someone completely unrelated to the scared, mentally fragile cave girl from Pylea, and it was nice to read your analysis of her progression from cave girl to strong woman in S5.
Wonderful job!