BtVS S8 Twilight
As someone who can’t help skipping to the end of books, it’s somewhat of a relief to have Twilight unmasked just as it was becoming impossible to ignore the rather irritating “Who is that masked man?” element of S8. “Why?” was always a more interesting question than “Who?”
Extra-diegetically, I can see how Angel as Twilight could work. It’s a comic, it begs to be Buffy vs the traditional comic book hero and if it’s to be someone she already knows, Angel fills those larger-than-life celebrity tights better than anyone else in her ‘verse.
Diegetically, it’s a work in progress but, because you have to start somewhere, how does knowing Twilight is Angel fit with his appearances so far? The first of these was as the owner of a pair of flying boots spying on Castle Slayer. Angel on the outside looking in is how it all started with Buffy, the guy’s a stalker through and through. His next appearance is at the end of the Faith Giles arc and with hindsight I’m inclined to believe his claim that pitting Watcher against Watcher and Slayer against Slayer was always the plan. Both Roden and Giles were acting on information supplied to them so it’s no stretch to believe they were being manipulated. Gigi’s identity hardly matters but it’s less clear whether Faith rather than Buffy was meant to be the other Slayer. Angel was there when Buffy responded to gutting Faith with attempted death by vampire so he knows it’s one way to undermine the moral certainty he claims defines her. But it’s also in character for him to want to give Faith a reason to drop out of the game.
Next up is in the one-off A Beautiful Sunset. Angel certainly knows that move but the meaning of “I’ll not kill you now. My first gift will be my last.” is much less clear. Angel’s first gift to Buffy was a cross and possibly that ties in to not wanting to make a martyr of her yet. Killing her, as he notes at the end of the issue, has been done to little effect. When he was Angelus he tried attacking her via her hapless personal life but failed because she still had her “me.” It seems he now equates that “me” with the aforementioned moral certitude. Angel wasn’t around for Buffy’s seasons of self-doubt, he doesn’t know her that well. Or maybe it’s relative. Buffy does what she does without a rule book or an all knowing council to guide her. Angel always needed external validation, some higher power to be the champion of. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were working for the Powers that Be now. They never did see Buffy coming and likely don’t much care for what they see. One slayer was all right, many might actually change things, shift the balance, overthrow the balancers.
Relatively little Twilight action in the next three arcs. He disses young love with Riley in a game of I’ll take your “double agent and raise you a triple agent” that Angel would certainly enjoy. And it seems more likely that Twilight might have been behind Harmony’s world changing reality show career, Harmony being a very known quantity to her former CEO. Angel appears as himself in the retro dream issue telling Buffy he wouldn’t tell a friend anything he knew about her past or future. At the time he seemed to be acting as the voice of Buffy’s subconscious influencing her to keep schtum about killing Future Willow. In retrospect it may indicate that Angel knows something about Buffy’s past or future he’s not telling her. Or that Buffy’s subconscious thinks that or that this is a reminder to the readers that Angel never told Buffy anything until he absolutely had to. Not that he was a vampire, not what he did to Drusilla, not that the First was trying to get him to kill himself, not that he wanted to leave town, not that he'd just signed up with Wolfram and Hart.
In Retreat part II Twilight resurfaces and his personal connection to Buffy becomes textual for the first time. He can’t believe she’s drowned, well Angel saw how that didn’t work in Prophecy Girl. And he’s expecting her to lay down her sword and turn it on herself. I always thought the sword thing was odd but it makes sense for Angel to use that particular weapon as a metaphor. She killed him with one.
So why would Angel do this Twilight thing? It’s easy to believe he might be under PtB instructions just as he was in the final episodes of AtS. It’s in character for him not to talk to Buffy about it. Through his time at W&H he has the contacts and the plan to end magic is just the kind of visionary thinking that lead to Acathala. The War on Slayers aspect is very ends justify means and Angel has the stomach for that but his means have been very mean. He’s ordered his own followers be killed for doubting him and is content to watch his soldiers be slaughtered by rampant goddesses. It could be a Groucho club thing - if they’re evil enough to be working for me they deserve to die. But he’s also had Slayer bases bombed and set the whole demon world on them. Girls he would have once called innocent victims have died. It’s here I smell a rat. Much of what Twilight has done reads like the funhouse mirror version of what happening with Buffy. If her Slayers are a cult at least they don’t mutilate themselves to join it. She’s been hoping to shift the human/demon balance, Twilght wants to abolish the scales. Angel’s casual acceptance of battle casualties in a war he initiated is a more extreme version of Buffy’s not jumping in to protect the citizen of Fray’s time from vampire attack. Back in her own time she doesn’t show the same big picture ‘tude and that makes me wonder if this Angel is also temporally or otherwise displaced, if the people he callously disregards simply aren’t his people. Joss wrote the Fray timeline (which was conceived before the activation spell) into this story, so alternate timelines really ought to play a part.
Extra-diegetically, I can see how Angel as Twilight could work. It’s a comic, it begs to be Buffy vs the traditional comic book hero and if it’s to be someone she already knows, Angel fills those larger-than-life celebrity tights better than anyone else in her ‘verse.
Diegetically, it’s a work in progress but, because you have to start somewhere, how does knowing Twilight is Angel fit with his appearances so far? The first of these was as the owner of a pair of flying boots spying on Castle Slayer. Angel on the outside looking in is how it all started with Buffy, the guy’s a stalker through and through. His next appearance is at the end of the Faith Giles arc and with hindsight I’m inclined to believe his claim that pitting Watcher against Watcher and Slayer against Slayer was always the plan. Both Roden and Giles were acting on information supplied to them so it’s no stretch to believe they were being manipulated. Gigi’s identity hardly matters but it’s less clear whether Faith rather than Buffy was meant to be the other Slayer. Angel was there when Buffy responded to gutting Faith with attempted death by vampire so he knows it’s one way to undermine the moral certainty he claims defines her. But it’s also in character for him to want to give Faith a reason to drop out of the game.
Next up is in the one-off A Beautiful Sunset. Angel certainly knows that move but the meaning of “I’ll not kill you now. My first gift will be my last.” is much less clear. Angel’s first gift to Buffy was a cross and possibly that ties in to not wanting to make a martyr of her yet. Killing her, as he notes at the end of the issue, has been done to little effect. When he was Angelus he tried attacking her via her hapless personal life but failed because she still had her “me.” It seems he now equates that “me” with the aforementioned moral certitude. Angel wasn’t around for Buffy’s seasons of self-doubt, he doesn’t know her that well. Or maybe it’s relative. Buffy does what she does without a rule book or an all knowing council to guide her. Angel always needed external validation, some higher power to be the champion of. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were working for the Powers that Be now. They never did see Buffy coming and likely don’t much care for what they see. One slayer was all right, many might actually change things, shift the balance, overthrow the balancers.
Relatively little Twilight action in the next three arcs. He disses young love with Riley in a game of I’ll take your “double agent and raise you a triple agent” that Angel would certainly enjoy. And it seems more likely that Twilight might have been behind Harmony’s world changing reality show career, Harmony being a very known quantity to her former CEO. Angel appears as himself in the retro dream issue telling Buffy he wouldn’t tell a friend anything he knew about her past or future. At the time he seemed to be acting as the voice of Buffy’s subconscious influencing her to keep schtum about killing Future Willow. In retrospect it may indicate that Angel knows something about Buffy’s past or future he’s not telling her. Or that Buffy’s subconscious thinks that or that this is a reminder to the readers that Angel never told Buffy anything until he absolutely had to. Not that he was a vampire, not what he did to Drusilla, not that the First was trying to get him to kill himself, not that he wanted to leave town, not that he'd just signed up with Wolfram and Hart.
In Retreat part II Twilight resurfaces and his personal connection to Buffy becomes textual for the first time. He can’t believe she’s drowned, well Angel saw how that didn’t work in Prophecy Girl. And he’s expecting her to lay down her sword and turn it on herself. I always thought the sword thing was odd but it makes sense for Angel to use that particular weapon as a metaphor. She killed him with one.
So why would Angel do this Twilight thing? It’s easy to believe he might be under PtB instructions just as he was in the final episodes of AtS. It’s in character for him not to talk to Buffy about it. Through his time at W&H he has the contacts and the plan to end magic is just the kind of visionary thinking that lead to Acathala. The War on Slayers aspect is very ends justify means and Angel has the stomach for that but his means have been very mean. He’s ordered his own followers be killed for doubting him and is content to watch his soldiers be slaughtered by rampant goddesses. It could be a Groucho club thing - if they’re evil enough to be working for me they deserve to die. But he’s also had Slayer bases bombed and set the whole demon world on them. Girls he would have once called innocent victims have died. It’s here I smell a rat. Much of what Twilight has done reads like the funhouse mirror version of what happening with Buffy. If her Slayers are a cult at least they don’t mutilate themselves to join it. She’s been hoping to shift the human/demon balance, Twilght wants to abolish the scales. Angel’s casual acceptance of battle casualties in a war he initiated is a more extreme version of Buffy’s not jumping in to protect the citizen of Fray’s time from vampire attack. Back in her own time she doesn’t show the same big picture ‘tude and that makes me wonder if this Angel is also temporally or otherwise displaced, if the people he callously disregards simply aren’t his people. Joss wrote the Fray timeline (which was conceived before the activation spell) into this story, so alternate timelines really ought to play a part.