I can't remember if I saw this before--but I was really glad to see it, either way. Penny has always bothered me. She's just so...stereotypically good-girl, you know? And you are absolutely right about Billy's immature desire to have his cake and eat it too.
Maybe I have too much faith in Joss, but I can't help but think that's intentional.
You're right about the love triangle. Compared to Buffy/Spike/Angel though, it seems to be inverted. In Buffy, you have a fully developed protagonist defying expectations by not choosing one of the "love interests". In Dr. Horrible, the question isn't so much who or if Penny will choose; it's more about what the two guys will do to get her to choose.
I've never quite had time to sit down and sort DH out, but I think it doesn't have mcuh to say about women and conceptions of femininity. It seems to have a lot more to say about men and conceptions of masculinity. If Penny, as a character, didn't exist, the rivalry between Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer would just be a comic book-style sendup of endless playground fights between jocks and geeks. bunny_chan85 pointed out that Penny's just a catalyst. She brings out extremes of "guy"-ness in both characters: wimpy passive-aggressive nice-guy-ness in Billy and egotistical, misogynistic machismo in Captain Hammer. In the end, nobody gets the girl, nobody gets revenge, and nobody gets what he wanted--in part because guys can't live their lives striving for these stereotypes any more than women can live fully striving to be skinny cheerleaders or 1950s housewives or whatever feminine "ideal" one might aspire to.
Huh. I think there might be more than a few essays floating around in Dr. Horrible. :)
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Maybe I have too much faith in Joss, but I can't help but think that's intentional.
You're right about the love triangle. Compared to Buffy/Spike/Angel though, it seems to be inverted. In Buffy, you have a fully developed protagonist defying expectations by not choosing one of the "love interests". In Dr. Horrible, the question isn't so much who or if Penny will choose; it's more about what the two guys will do to get her to choose.
I've never quite had time to sit down and sort DH out, but I think it doesn't have mcuh to say about women and conceptions of femininity. It seems to have a lot more to say about men and conceptions of masculinity. If Penny, as a character, didn't exist, the rivalry between Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer would just be a comic book-style sendup of endless playground fights between jocks and geeks.
Huh. I think there might be more than a few essays floating around in Dr. Horrible. :)