Buffy and Descent

So I've never really liked vampires. I sort of have this grudge against them. I have nothing against Dracula by Bram Stoker. It's more of a grudge against how much romance laces the pages of a modern fantasy book. I've been known to explain my dislike of fantasy by saying, "Vampire books are the harlequin romance books of the fantasy section." I have nothing against harlequin romance, per say. I just don't like it. Romance novels of any variety aren't my thing. Hence, a dislike for most modern vampire novels.

This dislike blanketed all things vampire, lest I fall into the trap of vampire-romance, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Since I love all things Joss Whedon, my friends have never been able to understand that I don't watch Buffy. But I was convinced that Buffy would be a gateway drug into vampire novels, and I wanted no part of it.

Little did I realize that it was The Dresden Files which was my gateway. Curse you, Jim Butcher, for your fantastic hardboiled novels that feature vampires, including the oh-so awesome Thomas, the White Court vampire.

So this summer (after reading The Dresden Files), I finally gave in and watched the first season of Buffy on hulu. I figured Harry Dresden had already soiled my perfect vampire free life and at least Buffy is a vampire slayer, so that means the vampires are still bad, so no romance was possible with them, right? Wrong. Enter Angel.

Needless to say, I wasn't very impressed with season 1. It seemed to be mostly what I feared. Average with vampire romance.

When season 2 was posted, I figured I would go ahead and give it a shot. One of my friends swears it gets better as it goes, so I figured there was no real harm in watching season two.

Going through the season, it seemed about on par with season one until in the middle of the season Buffy's vampire lover reverts back to his evil state.

"Passion" was a fantastic episode that gave me hope that Buffy could be good and put into an hour episode all the pain, agony, and dilemma that I want to put into Descent, my YA WIP.

My MC discovers her boyfriend isn't who she thinks he is - or rather he is destined to becoem someone equivalent to Voldemort or Darth Vader. My current not-so-good logline is:

A teenage American wizard discovers her boyfriend is destined to become the most evil wizard of all time. She must choose whether to let him continue down his dark road--which leads to the deaths of millions of wizards--or stop him at the price of her best friend's existence.

I want this novel to be filled with the pain, horror, and tragedy that this Buffy episode had--plus so much more. The episode only scratched the surface of the feelings my MC will have.

I want my book to break your heart as it breaks the MC's, and I want the MC's sheer will and determination to put it back together again.

I want my book to more moving than one episode of a show that's just starting to get good.

I'm glad I watched Buffy. I'm glad to see how a similar idea has been handled before. But mine's going to be better, of course. :)

[Any feedback or critique of my logline is appreciated.]