Angie from Angieville sent me, because I just posted my own little rant about my love of good guys, and if you dont’ mind, I’d love to add a link to your post. Thanks!

I completely agree with you about Spike and Drusilla – they were a great couple! I’m intrigued to see if you go the way of Riley with Giovanni. Will he stay completely normal or will he be tagging Unicorns in book 2? Yes I know, no spoilers!

And Captain Wentworth, always my fave. That letter!!!

And as for Logan I love him! I’ve just started season 2 of VM (bit slow on that one) but season 1 was fabulous. How could anyone not love Logan? Especially after the surprise birthday party scene. Clearly Veronica is meant to be with him. It better work out.

I’m not sure if I have a team. I love both good and bad guys, maybe you’ll sway me in part 2. Looking forward to it.

I’m with Lell on the Buffy stuff. Xander will always hold a place in my heart (swim team, anyone?) and I preferred Angelus to Angel because he was true to himself as a character, not a potential boyfriend. My true Buffy-love will always remain Giles though. How could anyone else compete…brains, looks, and sexy singing voice! Such a good guy (it probably helps that I was in my 30’s and over the teenage angst when I first watched Buffy).

For example, I love Gilbert Blythe. He’s sweet, considerate gentlemanly and I don’t see him as being of weak character. I would date him in a nanosecond. But if I go to Gone With The Wind, I could never figure out what Scarlett saw in Ashley. He was a total pansy in my mind, but in reality (or GWTW reality in any case) he probably was just as nice as Gilbert. I think that the negative reaction to Ashley and other “nice guys” comes from their ability to be the right guy for the heroine. Anne was sweet, smart and caring, Gilbert was her perfect match. Scarlett was written to be a larger than life character. I don’t think Ashley would have made her happy in the end because it wasn’t in his nature to be able to match her character the way Rhett did.

For me, one of the most interesting dynamics of Bad Boy v. Nice Boy is found in Gilmore Girls: the Dean, Rory, Jess triangle. It’s interesting because they are equally well written, so the playing field was leveled. In my head, Dean was the perfect all-American cute boy with just a hint of wildness in him. (It was totally the leather jacket). He was the good guy but he wasn’t boring because he was written to be dynamic and realistic. He didn’t pretend to share ALL of Rory’s interests, instead they compromised in what they did. He stayed with her browsing books and she would go see Lord of the Rings. It was functional. His foil, Jess, was the complete opposite. Where Dean integrated himself to the community, Jess was always an outsider. The fact that he was a well read one was the only edge I could see him having over Dean. Dean didn’t stimulate Rory intellectually in the same was Jess did. But for me, that was the thing I never understood. How she could give up everything else she had with Dean for Jess, the literate bad boy. It never added up. I mean, I liked Jess’ character a lot, but I could never see him being the better guy. I always thought Dean was the guy for Rory, even in comparison to Logan, who was a mix of Dean and Jess. Logan had the intellectual black sheep bad boy appeal of Jess and the sweet gestures and protectiveness of Dean. I honestly don’t know why I never rooted for him and was glad she turned him down in the end. He probably would have made her happy. Actually, in their own way, each boy had the possibility of making her happy.

I guess I don’t know which camp I’d fall into because I tend to think in a case by case basis. I don’t know why Angel’s behavior in Buffy never sent up the red flags that Edwards’ did in Twilight. I think of Edward as the creepiest of creepers, watching the girl sleep and stalking her, imposing his will on her. I recognize that Angel did a lot of the same things. But I guess when I was watching the series I was connecting more with Buffy than with anyone else, so I saw him through her lens and thus ended up with a little bit of Angel love in spite of myself. By all rights he should end up in the category of Edwards and Rochesters, but I guess the writing of the show allowed him to escape that. I wasn’t unsatisfied with the answer Buffy gave him in the end though, I think it showed great maturity on her part to recognize that a relationship with him would stunt her growth as a person.

I think the difference between Poe and Brandon’s romantic gestures were more timing. I think Amy could love Brandon, but at the time she wasn’t in the right place for her to be loved like that.

To me the ultimate “good guy” vs. “bad boy” from Buffy would be from the first and second season, with Angel and Xander. Spike was just an aberration that needed to be ended with a pointy stick. But it does kind of prove the point you’re making here. Xander, in the sixth season, proved to be one of the strongest characters because his sheer amount of heart rather than superpower, but in Xander/Angel, he always came out the loser. In fact, the only time he was viewed as a viable candidate for Buffy was when he was…possessed by a hyena spirit and became the bad boy himself? And then that became creepy rather quickly.

(Sorry, I would join in the VM stuff, but never watched it…or “Say Anything.” I know, bad Lell)

I can’t declare myself Team Nice Guy or Team Bad Boy either. It varies. I wanted the main character of Meg Cabot’s mediator series to end up with the bad guy because the scenes with him were more interesting, though if I met him in real life, I’d agree that he sucks. Same goes for Brandon and Poe (except for the sucking part). But I like the aforementioned Simon.

Sometimes we perceive a character as “settling” when she ends up with a nice guy because that doesn’t allow for any growth with the main character whatsoever. To end up with the Bad Boy, there’s inevitably going to be some sort of change — whether it’s giving up everything that makes you yourself a la Sandy in Grease or just stepping out of your comfort zone and going into a world you might not otherwise ever visit, like a motorcycle bar on the back of his Harley. It all comes down to how much the character has to change—too much and I don’t like it, too little and I don’t like it. And usually the character with the “too little” change is the steady, dependable Nice Guy, unfortunately.

This probably didn’t make much sense. And it revealed just how much of a Buffy geek I really am. Whoops.