Supernatural: about Jo
Nov. 6th, 2006 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyMy thing with Jo is that she reminds me of Dawn from Buffy (back in the first season we met her, fifth season). Which would not be an issue except Dawn was fourteen. And Jo is, I hear from people, supposed to be twenty-one (to which my response remains... really? She doesn't act or look that old).
Another reason why Dawn worked for me in that Jo didn't -- she annoyed Buffy just as much as she annoyed me, at the start. I ended up loving her partly because Buffy showed me how, as the fifth season wore on. The respect stuff with Jo and Dean, on the other hand, happened way too fast for me to apply it to my own feelings for Jo.
Also, Jo lost all of her 'growing up' points from the middle when at the end she a) let Dean take all the blame for her own idea and b) unloaded all her pain onto someone she knew that it would also hurt. Her net growth in this episode was nil, but it felt like it was given weight regardless.
Honestly, if Jo really thinks she's old enough to go hunting, then she should be old enough to tell her mother the truth and just go and do it. But she isn't. She has to sneak around and lie and use other people to cover up what she's doing. All of which makes her much too young, in my book (Buffy snuck around and lied to her mom and covered up for what she was doing... when she was fifteen and sixteen).
Or if she really can't face telling her mom, she could go off to 'college' and go hunting instead. But then she wouldn't be allowed to use the resources of the other hunters (as her mom would find out), including Ash.
Just... no. If you're old enough to do it, you have to be old enough to face the consequences of making the choice (like Buffy in Becoming, when she told her mom the truth and walked out the door to save the world). Jo completely avoided that, even letting Dean take the heat for her own choices (which makes me wonder if John didn't take the heat for Jo's father's choices. Like father, like child -- right, Ellen?).
None of which left me with any inclination to give her the slightest bit of leeway in the future or , honestly, any desire to ever see her character again (and I'm very on the ropes about Ellen now, after liking her with reservation through Simon Said).
Another reason why Dawn worked for me in that Jo didn't -- she annoyed Buffy just as much as she annoyed me, at the start. I ended up loving her partly because Buffy showed me how, as the fifth season wore on. The respect stuff with Jo and Dean, on the other hand, happened way too fast for me to apply it to my own feelings for Jo.
Also, Jo lost all of her 'growing up' points from the middle when at the end she a) let Dean take all the blame for her own idea and b) unloaded all her pain onto someone she knew that it would also hurt. Her net growth in this episode was nil, but it felt like it was given weight regardless.
Honestly, if Jo really thinks she's old enough to go hunting, then she should be old enough to tell her mother the truth and just go and do it. But she isn't. She has to sneak around and lie and use other people to cover up what she's doing. All of which makes her much too young, in my book (Buffy snuck around and lied to her mom and covered up for what she was doing... when she was fifteen and sixteen).
Or if she really can't face telling her mom, she could go off to 'college' and go hunting instead. But then she wouldn't be allowed to use the resources of the other hunters (as her mom would find out), including Ash.
Just... no. If you're old enough to do it, you have to be old enough to face the consequences of making the choice (like Buffy in Becoming, when she told her mom the truth and walked out the door to save the world). Jo completely avoided that, even letting Dean take the heat for her own choices (which makes me wonder if John didn't take the heat for Jo's father's choices. Like father, like child -- right, Ellen?).
None of which left me with any inclination to give her the slightest bit of leeway in the future or , honestly, any desire to ever see her character again (and I'm very on the ropes about Ellen now, after liking her with reservation through Simon Said).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-07 06:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-07 07:14 pm (UTC)