I'm not sure quite where to begin. I've read this over a few times and I wanted to take time to compose my comment. However, I keep going back to WORD! THIS SFM! and such. LOL
I love that you started from Cordelia's very first appearance. It always bugs me when people act as if Cordelia's growth was so sudden and strange. Clearly the seeds were in place on BTVS. And really the Cordelia v. Scoobies dynamic always reminds me of Mean Girls. Regina and The Plastics were always so open with their mean girl-ness whereas Janice and Katy were more subtle and backhanded. The Scoobies had their share of mean moments but they are hardly called out on it whereas because Cordelia was honest with it, she gets the brunt of the hate. I love that you pointed out how many times she helped, that she did have that heart in her the whole time.
I also adore that you drew the parallels between Cordelia and religion. I actually was talking to damnskippytoo, samsom, and nikkiwawa79 about this a few weeks ago. I was raised in the Catholic church, went to Catholic school, so sainthood and their paths, have always been a part of me. I am one of the ones that didn't much care for the very literal canonization of Cordelia. The glowing ascension into Heaven provides too much ammunition for fanon, imho, and was completely mishandled. Cordelia became a very literal Christ-like figure (as you pointed out) and that is one of those points that just personally annoys me. That is my own bias coming through though. I wanted her to be Cordelia, as a character who grew and changed, and by that point, I do believe she was more of a story vessel in serving as a parallel to Christ (again, as you pointed out). While okay, I can see how it was organic, it doesn't mean I have to like it. LOL
But out of all of this, I am so very happy that you did point to the fact that Cordelia in Season Four is NOT Cordelia. Why is it that so many fans can forgive Angel for Angelus but can't do the same for Cordelia and Spike? Why is it that when Cordelia had no control over her actions whatsoever, she is still seen as being evil? (And on the same vein, unsouled!Spike vs souled!Spike).
At the end, this is such a fantastic piece of meta and much like The Assissination of Cordelia Chase, I think everyone needs to take some time, read it, and really give you some serious props. :)
People who ignore Cordelia's very clear character arc on BtVS annoy me, and nothing annoys me more than when people talk about what a bitch Cordelia is while giving Willow and Xander a free pass all the time. Frankly, they behave in far more atrocious ways. Cordelia is just impolite.
I wasn't raised with faith and I'm very, very agnostic. So for me the religious overtones of Cordelia's story are just mythic archetypes like any other -- like what Buffy owes to the trickster heroes of epic comedy, or what Angel owes to divine Achilles with his two potential destinies.
I think the Christ story -- which is essentially just an evolution of the Persephone story, the Dionysus story, the Osiris story, to be fair -- is one of the most important mythemes in western literature, so I don't have a problem with stories that play on it directly. I think Cordelia's version of the passion is unique enough that the parallels add to the story rather than detract from it, but I can understand why some people get turned off by the very overt religious aspects.
At the same time, as I noted at the beginning of the "Exodus" section", AtS is a story that operates in a religious framework. The notion of atonement and salvation through good works is something extremely tied to Christianity in our culture, and it's an enormous divergence from BtVS to even have the PTB in the first place. As late as BtVS 7.07 "Conversations With Dead People" (a stunning episode), Buffy maintains that there's no sure word on the existence of God. Over on AtS there can be no question: the PTB exist, and whether or not they are benevolent they are the ones running the show.
Viewed in that light, I think to do AtS as a Judeo-Christian heroic epic without a martyr character would have been strange, and I appreciate the use of Cordelia as the martyr because she is the least likely candidate from the outset.
With regard to Angel/Angelus versus Spike/Spike and Cordelia/Jasmine: I think the problem a lot of people have here is that Angelus has a very distinct banter and set of character quirks that distinguish him from Angel. Spike acts largely the same whether he has a soul or not, because his whole "Spike" persona was totally made up to begin with (qv BtVS 5.07 "Fool For Love"). Until she has her own body, Jasmine in Cordelia's form does a pretty great Cordelia impression, at least so far as Cordy's speech patterns and personality quirks. She does things Cordy would never do, but does them while maintaining Cordy's patter. That makes it harder for the viewer to distinguish between personas, and for some people that's enough to tarnish the character.
I love that you started from Cordelia's very first appearance. It always bugs me when people act as if Cordelia's growth was so sudden and strange. Clearly the seeds were in place on BTVS. And really the Cordelia v. Scoobies dynamic always reminds me of Mean Girls. Regina and The Plastics were always so open with their mean girl-ness whereas Janice and Katy were more subtle and backhanded. The Scoobies had their share of mean moments but they are hardly called out on it whereas because Cordelia was honest with it, she gets the brunt of the hate. I love that you pointed out how many times she helped, that she did have that heart in her the whole time.
I also adore that you drew the parallels between Cordelia and religion. I actually was talking to damnskippytoo, samsom, and nikkiwawa79 about this a few weeks ago. I was raised in the Catholic church, went to Catholic school, so sainthood and their paths, have always been a part of me. I am one of the ones that didn't much care for the very literal canonization of Cordelia. The glowing ascension into Heaven provides too much ammunition for fanon, imho, and was completely mishandled. Cordelia became a very literal Christ-like figure (as you pointed out) and that is one of those points that just personally annoys me. That is my own bias coming through though. I wanted her to be Cordelia, as a character who grew and changed, and by that point, I do believe she was more of a story vessel in serving as a parallel to Christ (again, as you pointed out). While okay, I can see how it was organic, it doesn't mean I have to like it. LOL
But out of all of this, I am so very happy that you did point to the fact that Cordelia in Season Four is NOT Cordelia. Why is it that so many fans can forgive Angel for Angelus but can't do the same for Cordelia and Spike? Why is it that when Cordelia had no control over her actions whatsoever, she is still seen as being evil? (And on the same vein, unsouled!Spike vs souled!Spike).
At the end, this is such a fantastic piece of meta and much like The Assissination of Cordelia Chase, I think everyone needs to take some time, read it, and really give you some serious props. :)
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People who ignore Cordelia's very clear character arc on BtVS annoy me, and nothing annoys me more than when people talk about what a bitch Cordelia is while giving Willow and Xander a free pass all the time. Frankly, they behave in far more atrocious ways. Cordelia is just impolite.
I wasn't raised with faith and I'm very, very agnostic. So for me the religious overtones of Cordelia's story are just mythic archetypes like any other -- like what Buffy owes to the trickster heroes of epic comedy, or what Angel owes to divine Achilles with his two potential destinies.
I think the Christ story -- which is essentially just an evolution of the Persephone story, the Dionysus story, the Osiris story, to be fair -- is one of the most important mythemes in western literature, so I don't have a problem with stories that play on it directly. I think Cordelia's version of the passion is unique enough that the parallels add to the story rather than detract from it, but I can understand why some people get turned off by the very overt religious aspects.
At the same time, as I noted at the beginning of the "Exodus" section", AtS is a story that operates in a religious framework. The notion of atonement and salvation through good works is something extremely tied to Christianity in our culture, and it's an enormous divergence from BtVS to even have the PTB in the first place. As late as BtVS 7.07 "Conversations With Dead People" (a stunning episode), Buffy maintains that there's no sure word on the existence of God. Over on AtS there can be no question: the PTB exist, and whether or not they are benevolent they are the ones running the show.
Viewed in that light, I think to do AtS as a Judeo-Christian heroic epic without a martyr character would have been strange, and I appreciate the use of Cordelia as the martyr because she is the least likely candidate from the outset.
With regard to Angel/Angelus versus Spike/Spike and Cordelia/Jasmine: I think the problem a lot of people have here is that Angelus has a very distinct banter and set of character quirks that distinguish him from Angel. Spike acts largely the same whether he has a soul or not, because his whole "Spike" persona was totally made up to begin with (qv BtVS 5.07 "Fool For Love"). Until she has her own body, Jasmine in Cordelia's form does a pretty great Cordelia impression, at least so far as Cordy's speech patterns and personality quirks. She does things Cordy would never do, but does them while maintaining Cordy's patter. That makes it harder for the viewer to distinguish between personas, and for some people that's enough to tarnish the character.
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