frelling_tralk

Nah, I'd have to disagree there. I think a major part of Oz's story arc is the idea of where the wolf ends and where he begins. It's something which bothers him - in 'Fear, Itself'. The plot of 'Wild at Heart' and 'New Moon Rising' both play on this. The wolf stirs up some passion in him (and the nekkid, nekkid, nekkid....sorry....I was...talking about something....), but he makes some bad choices. Like Willow says, he didn't have to keep the fact the Veruca situation secret. That's certainly the case if you argue that the only reason he slept with her was the wolf (and in the first instance, I'd agree with you). I also think the "Come to my den of luuuurve" approach to entrap Veruca was kind of dumb. I think there's a definate overlap with his behaviour towards Tara - it's not unprecendented for people to get possessive of their exes, and his innability to fully get a handle on his wolfy side simply gets the better of him.

I don't really buy Buffy as being too hard on him either. Buffy's certainly mad at him at the end of 'Wild at Heart', but that's pretty understandable given that Willow was hurting so badly. When he shows up again, both her and Xander step in and make the small-talk with Oz.

Don't get me wrong, I love Oz's character but that doesn't mean I think he should behave like a saint. I think characters are actually MORE interesting if they're flawed.

Of course, I am biased because of the shirtlessness! :)

PS - Apologies for any spelling/grammatical mess-ups. I'm tired and my foot is falling asleppy.