Who would you have liked to have seen Barnabas wind up with?

spoilers






At best, the much-touted 1840 conversion to the good guys was essentially a last effort at ratings and a way to end the present time storyline.  It was lousy writing that made no sense in terms of the characters.

Saving the children was in the 1897 storyline...It just showed that the character was complex like Joshua Collins and a few others...

Hmmm..Just wondering if lethal injections,  hypnotizing individuals for non-medical purposes, and leasurely handing out sedatives can be considered good crisis solutions.

Lots o' spoilers








Who put the curse on Barnabas to begin with?  Who controlled Rachel essentially because she "was in the way"?  Who blackmailed Barnabas by physically threatening various tangential members of the household?  Who made his cousin rise as a zombie?  Who really had no problems whatsover hurting small children when it suited her purposes?
Luciaphil

Lucia. . i agree with you completely. . .Barnabas would turn to Angelique when 1) Julia was missing or 2) Julia was at a loss as  what to do. . . Angie was his 2nd choice in those instances I believe. . well, except 1897 when Julia wasn't even THERE. . .

Hmmm..Just wondering if lethal injections,  hypnotizing individuals for non-medical purposes, and leasurely handing out sedatives can be considered good crisis solutions.

They're not.  I never said they were.  And frankly, I don't see the Julia and Barnabas relationship as being anymore viable than the Angelique/Barnabas was.

Luciaphil

I picture Barnabas ending up with no one.  It's what he deserved.

Has there ever been a character who objectified the women in his life more than he?

Josette?....Maggie?...Vicki?.....they were so interchangeable to him it didn't matter a damn.

Julia?...He'd just as soon kill her as kiss her, if it suited his needs of the moment.

He didn't want romance OR sex, apparently.  He simply wanted possession.  So did Angelique.  How appropriate.

Raineypark

Julia?...He'd just as soon kill her as kiss her, if it suited his needs of the moment.

I got tired of him threatening her every 5 minutes.

I got tired of him threatening her every 5 minutes.

Didn't Barnabas threaten practically all of them?  Maybe all the women should just run when they see him?  Head for the hills!!!  

Question - does Barnabas actually know what "love" is?

Question - does Barnabas actually know what "love" is?

The B Man did love members of his family: Naomi, Sarah & Jeremiah--up until Jeremiah eloped with Josette and Barnabas killed him for it, of course.

He obviously saw Josette as the shining example of womanhood, for better or worse, and Angelique's unique brand of love surely warped his mind: the destruction of his family, having Josette ripped away from him, being cursed by his affliction...well, we all know that Barnabas has issues. And being chained up in that coffin for 170 years didn't do much for his mental health.

I think when Barnabas was freed from his tomb, he saw an opportunity to make the world that he wanted in 1795, and he didn't care how he did it. He was a victim of a psychotic, evil supernatural social climber; Angelique not only ruined his life--she ruined any chance he had of finding peace in death.

Maggie's resemblance to Josette drove him even more batty--no pun intended--than he already was; but, eventually, Barnabas learned that kidnapping a girl and jacking hard with her mind was no way to find true love. If Barnabas did indeed ever exhibit emotional growth, it was when he finally fell in love with Vicki for who she was, abandoning that dopey plan of re-creating Josette.

And while I dearly love Julia, she was as calulating and sociopathic as Barnabas was early on; she didn't care about helping Maggie, and while she was squeamish about putting the needle to Dr. Woodard, she did it anyway--because by that time she was truly Barnabas' co-conspirator, her own free will putting her in that horrible position.

If she really wanted to help Barnabas, she would've blown off the cure and helped put the horrors of the past behind him...

The B Man did love members of his family: Naomi, Sarah & Jeremiah--up until Jeremiah eloped with Josette and Barnabas killed him for it, of course.

He obviously saw Josette as the shining example of womanhood, for better or worse, and Angelique's unique brand of love surely warped his mind: the destruction of his family, having Josette ripped away from him, being cursed by his affliction...well, we all know that Barnabas has issues. And being chained up in that coffin for 170 years didn't do much for his mental health.

I think when Barnabas was freed from his tomb, he saw an opportunity to make the world that he wanted in 1795, and he didn't care how he did it. He was a victim of a psychotic, evil supernatural social climber; Angelique not only ruined his life--she ruined any chance he had of finding peace in death.

Maggie's resemblance to Josette drove him even more batty--no pun intended--that he already was; but, eventually, Barnabas learned that kidnapping a girl and jacking hard with her mind was no way to find true love. If Barnabas did indeed ever exhibit emotional growth, it was when he finally fell in love with Vicki for who she was, abandoning that dopey plan of re-creating Josette.

And while I dearly love Julia, she was as calulating and sociopathic as Barnabas was early on; she didn't care about helping Maggie, and while she was squeamish about putting the needle to Dr. Woodard, she did it anyway--because by that time she was truly Barnabas' co-conspirator, her own free will putting her in that horrible position.

If she really wanted to help Barnabas, she would've blown off the cure and helped put the horrors of the past behind him...

You make a great psychologist
That's the best description of Barnabas I've heard yet ..

I second that too too Dr Scout and have to add why wasn't Barnabas insane after all that time locked away
Did he wake up? i know how i feel after a week down the beach with some family members! stark raving mad!
heehee

jennifer

IIRC, this question was asked of Jonathan Frid at the cast reunion of Shadowcon VII in 1983. This was his second appearance at a DS convention after many years of being out of the public eye. The fan asked who Jonathan himself would have liked Barnabas to end up with and gave Jonathan some examples....  Maggie, Josette, Roxanne....etc....

As Jonathan hesitated a bit, down the row of DS actors, Lara Parker leaned forward in her seat, put her hands on her hips and gave Jonathan a long, Angelique-like glare, as if to say, "Unless you want another witchcraft whammy like you got in the 1795 flashback, you'd better give the RIGHT answer, Jonathan!" As she stared at him, he didn't notice at first but the audience did and they began to go wild! Then Jonathan laughed and diplomatically said to the questioner, "Shame on you for asking that question!"

I'm like Luciaphil. In the past, I always felt sorry for Julia and wished Barnabas would choose her as his love. However, I now believe Julia was too good for Barnabas. She was better off with Professor Stokes, I think. Barnabas and Angelique deserved each other.

SDP

You make a great psychologist That's the best description of Barnabas I've heard yet ..

Thanks!

It also sets up my new TV series: Scout DeSoto, Vampire Psychologist!

Coming this fall to The WB!

Barnabas DID know what love was.....he wouldn't have been so desperate to find it, especially with every SYT or Josette-look-alike he came across if he didn't. And as already mentioned he loved all of his family, not just the 1795 branch but the present-day family as well, plus I also believe he had a great deal of affection for the 1840 Collins family. The 1897 family I kinda doubt for two reasons: [spoiler]they were a bunch of narrow-minded, opinionated stiffs (Judith and Edward fit this perfectly, a womanizing boozer (Quentin, although Barnabas and he did grow to be good friends by the time 1897 was over) or an immature clown (Carl, obviously Barnabas didn't have much affection for him, considering he winds up killing him! But I digress....)[/spoiler]

As far as the ladies went:

I think Barnabas truly loved Vicki.......even more so when he dropped the idea of turning her into the image of Josette. He and Vicki had great chemistry as friends, but the romantic chemistry just wasn't there. Vicki loved Barnabas but she wasn't IN love with him, that has a lot to do with how I feel about the situation.

Before the curse, Barnabas and Josette were adorable together, and had things worked out, I think they could have been very happy together had there been no Angelique. What happened with those two was a tragedy. I always believed Josette was and would always be the love of Barnabas' life since he spent so many years pining for her and wanting to recreate her with every woman he became interested in.

Angelique.....sorry but nothing is gonna convince me [spoiler]this woman, who tore Barnabas and Josette apart through black magic, who cursed him and killing most of his family with the curse as well, who tormented him throughout the centuries, was Barnabas' one and only true love. She did too much to him for me to buy the whole he-loved-her-but-didn't-know-it-til-it-was-too-late plot device the writers sloppily hatched out.[/spoiler]

Roxanne....never know what Barnabas saw in her. That's all I have to say about Ms. Drew.

Rachel and Maggie were nothing but Josette-clones (though I do believe he grew to care for Maggie outside her resemblance to Josette).

Lady Kitty Hampshire was [spoiler]supposed to be the actual reincarnation of Josette....unfortunately that too was doomed to failure. But one can't help but wonder if, had the Leviathans not intervened, Barnabas and Kitty could have had a happy life in the present-day. She would have had to go through the same adjustments to the 20th century that Barnabas had to make when he was released from his coffin in 1967.
[/spoiler]

I will shout it from the top of the lungs.....Barnabas should have turned his affections toward the one woman who had been totally devoted to him and totally self-sacrificing when it came to protecting and helping him.....Julia Hoffman! She loved him so much, and if he had only given her the chance, I think he would have felt more than friendly feelings towards her. She did so much for him, more than any of the younger girls he constantly fell for. I just wish he could have realized that on the show. I mean I know he cared for her, but feel he should have given her more of a chance for his love.

I think Julia, they were friends and depends on each other. i think he depended on Julia to admit to love her, because he didn't want her do die. How many times did they risk  their lives for each other. i don't think that they hide anything from each other except how much they cared.  You really don't know what happened in their late night talks. 

You really don't know what happened in their late night talks.

No, but I have a pretty good idea of what didn't happen - even if it should have.

I think Barnabas and Julia are somewhat comparable to Barnabas and Vicki, with Barnabas in the opposite position. Just as Vicki cared for Barnabas but wasn't in love with him, Barnabas cared for Julia but wasn't in love with her. 

I thought Barnabas and Victoria had some touching moments. Vicki is the first person after Josette he developed feelings for, beginning with [spoiler]his inability to bite her at the Old House. Then his decision not to use Jeff Clark in the experiment because of Vicki's feelings for him, and his willingness to have the dream so that Vicki wouldn't suffer any longer. And finally, his trip back to 1795 to save Vicki only to watch her leave with Peter.[/spoiler] All proof that he loved her, IMO.

But my choice would've been a storyline that enabled him to be reunited with Josette in some form. And I admit, I've wished since I watched it that [spoiler]the Leviathans hadn't come along and that Barnabas had taken Josette/Kitty to the present day. If a better job had been done in establishing Kitty and Josette as the same person (and not made to seem like a possession in some scenes), they would've been perfect.[/spoiler]