Larry Blaisdell
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| Larry Blaisdell | ||||||||||||||
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 Larry Bagby III as Larry Blaisdell |
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Larry Blaisdell is a minor recurring fictional character portrayed by Larry Bagby in the second and third seasons of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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[edit] History
At first he is the stereotypical "jock" who often gives Xander Harris a hard time. In "Phases," when Xander presses Larry to confess to a series of werewolf attacks, Larry misunderstands and infers that Xander, like himself, is a closeted homosexual. This gave a humorous premise for most of the Larry and Xander conversations in later episodes, and also leads to Larry's own coming out of the closet, and the revelation of his more caring and compassionate side.
In the alternate universe of "The Wish", he is one of Rupert Giles's "white hats," along with Oz and a girl named Nancy. At the end of the third season, he is seen taking the front line in the battle against Mayor Richard Wilkins III, who had morphed into the gigantic demon Olvikan. He is last seen being thrown to the ground by a swipe of the Mayor's tail.
[edit] Death
Larry's death is stated in the shooting script of "Graduation Day" and was confirmed in "Smashed" when Willow finally restores Amy, who had transformed herself into a rat in "Gingerbread", to human form. Unaware that three years have gone by, Amy asks whether Larry already has a date for the prom. Willow replies: "One, Larry's gay. Two, Larry's dead. And three — high school's kind of over."
[edit] Controversy
At the time, the minor storyline of Larry Blaisdell was a daring thing on American network television when having gay characters in a popular series was rare and often not much more than a Very Special Episode. However, as gay characters would later become more commonplace, and as this series would break new ground in this field with the relationship between Willow and Tara, some fans have since become more critical of the limited role given to Larry[citation needed], i.e. that a football player could come out in high school and face no homophobia, and that he was not seen at the school dances, when even the nerdy loser Jonathan appeared with a date. The fact that the character faced a violent death is tied to an accusation that Joss Whedon was catering to an old Hollywood clichés that linked homosexuality to sissy stock characters, or an untimely and unpleasant death.[citation needed]
For example, Tara was suddenly murdered just as she and Willow were allowed to show more affection on camera. This however was not the intention, as Whedon had been planning to use the death of a major character from the start of the season as a means to push Willow into her villain role. Tara being Willow's soulmate, was of course the most obvious candidate.
It was often implied through comedy that two other minor male characters, Andrew Wells and Clem the demon, were gay; another minor recurring character from season three, Scott Hope, was revealed to be in gay in the seventh season — albeit by a self-described evil character who may have been playing mind games on Buffy, knowing that she had briefly dated Scott. Willow was given a new girlfriend in the final season (one of the new Slayers) and was the only character to end the series with a happy relationship.
