Angel's Night -- Excerpts from a pre-anime/Johnny Fandom fandom.
Remember when the cult TV shows in their twilight seasons were BtVS, Angel and Dawson's Creek? When Richard Dean Anderson was still at the helm of SG-1 and Clark/Lex was the slashiest brotherly-couple on the WB before Jensen Ackles was whisked away to a creepier, more fangirl-indulging place called Supernatural?
Remember when there was a site called Angel's Night with a mad MAD forum full of creative, highly intellectual pretzels?
Remember when we wrote thoughtful and articulate articles on the show?
*cackles like a mad evil witch*
Apparently, I had saved a copy of the entire site onto a dusty old CD-R I just found a few hours ago.
Rach. Jeremy. If you are interested in a copy of Why Tortured Souls are so Dang Attractive, Q&A with your favorite ANGEL members or the complete Haldol Chronicles -- you know where to find me.
I just spent the last few minutes laughing and being thoroughly awwed by a rather passionate article on The Necessity of Fred and Gunn. Complete with reference to Dawson Creek's Pacey and Joey, reality series Joe Millionaire and The Bachelor(ette). God, I feel old. Like some kind of pre-fandom fandom veteran.
One thing is for sure, though. There is a HUGE irony in my passionate defense of illogical romances facing unfavourable odds that can now be called my personal life. XDDDD
____
The Necessity of Fred and Gunn
This is not a pro-Gunn & Fred rant.
Well, technically it is, but for the most part it isn't. It's not so much an article on Gunn and Fred as it is an article on the essence of Gunn and Fred. You'll understand soon enough.
The essence is what fairytale fluff is made of. I want Gunn and Fred to have a happily ever after simply because I want to believe it is possible to realize dreams into reality. That love does not have to adhere to any norms or expectations, and that sometimes such standards can be wrong. Deep down, I know many people suffer from the same 'fairytale syndrome'. It's a flaw in the human condition. Its a big reason why, despite how ruthless and crass the likes of Joe Millionaire and The Bachelor(rette) were, hundreds of millions of people still tuned in every week. Sure we rolled our eyes and tried to fight the desire to smack our television (because by some illogical reasoning, it was concluded that if we can express our irritation at our TV, it will be transmitted to the contestants the same way their silliness is transmitted to us), yet every week there we were, glued to our seats and unable to turn our eyes away from the flickering screen. We watched with scorn, with horror, with disbelief at how much people would degrade themselves for 15 minutes of fame…and with a deeply buried hope under the guise of skepticism that maybe, just maybe, there is an actual attraction.
My friends, love is like magic and miracles - we want to believe, even for a little while.
It has been my experience that no B/A-shipper did not also profess being a hopeless romantic. The phrase has been used often, but what does it mean exactly? The belief that true love is unconquerable? That love can last forever? That even the most impossible and unlikely can fall madly in love? The greatest love stories of the past and present are exactly that: Romeo & Juliet. A Love Story. Beauty and the Beast (my all-time childhood favorite). Castaways (not the Madonna picture, god forbid! The original, italian version). Pretty Woman. Titanic. And any and all couples that have ever made you cry and made your heart flutter as you sigh, "I want a Pacey."
Now don't get me wrong - I was never a fan of Dawson's Creek. I openly admitted that if there had been no Dawson (at least not as a title character) I would've probably watched it. The only thing about the show that had ever caught my interest was Pacey and Joey. It was by chance that I was flipping channels one boring evening and caught them on my television. There was something about them that sparked my fascination - the unabashed bad boy and the smart, shy good girl. From the beginning it was told that the soul-mates were best friends Dawson and Joey. They were compatible. It made sense. By golly, it was given! There was no way the sweet, down-to-earth, secretly crushing over her best friend, hard working and smart girl-next-door would ever fall for the rebel who first made waves by having an affair with his high school teacher. Nor he her. And yet....
There were a million reasons why they wouldn't/shouldn't have worked. Yet somehow, they clicked. Just as Buffy and Angel had been, arguably, the greatest character storyline on BtVS - so was Pacey and Joey for DC.
But I digress.
Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof posed the question: "A fish may love a bird, but where would they live?"
The answer I want to believe in is: Somewhere. Anywhere. They will find a place and a way.
I want to believe in the strength of the human spirit. I want to believe in its stubbornness to march onwards even if all reasoning points to the conclusion that it's going the wrong way. I want to believe that human progress is not in perfecting reason, but in pushing the limits and expanding our horizon. A dreamer rejects reality and the supposed limits that comes with it. The risks are high and many have been destroyed by daring to dream, but was not the invention of flight worth it? Would we have rather preferred to live in a world we believed was flat?
I want to believe that there is no fate but what we make.
Which, after much ranting and digressing, I attempt to get my point across: Fred chose Gunn. No one influenced her choice. Love was not and should not be logicked. Like the weather, it can't and often won't be predicted accurately. But it can be seen, and there is no denying that there is chemistry between Gunn and Fred. Why did the PTBs behind the show match them up? Because they clicked. It was a suprising chemistry, but it worked. And it was definitely not the sensible matching that Fred and Wesley would've been.
What about Fred and Wesley, anyway? There could have been something between Fred and Wesley of the past, but not the Wesley we know now. I don't think he quite knows it himself, but the direction he's headed right now does not cross with Fred's.
I have a theory - which now crosses into more bias, personal territory - that Wesley does not really love Fred. Not like he did initially. Not like before she chose Gunn because he was too late in expressing his feelings for her. I suspect his love has become more superficial (and perhaps always had been a bit so). My theory is that Wesley was more captivated by the purity and innocence that Fred embodied. She was sweet. She was smart. He did not love her so much as he loved what she represented to him. Does anyone else remember his first love since moving to LA? Guise will be Guise, Virginia Bryce? In many ways, she has more in common with Lilah than she does with Fred. Not that I would really be against Wesley and Fred. My only grudge is that it reawakens the Dawson-dilemma: everyone naturally expecting the two to get together. Where's the fun in love if it's predictable? Passion just doesn't have the same ring to it when it's reasonable; the excitement isn't quite there.
I'm almost done. Honest.
But first let me extend on the "fairytale syndrome". I do not know a single woman who does not dream of her Prince Charming one day coming to sweep her away to his castle. However, not all Prince Charmings live in castles - or are sophisticated, well mannered Princes, for that matter. Sometimes they're $19,000US gruff but charming construction workers. Sometimes the girl chooses the southern country boy rather than the Jonjon-like son of New York's Governor (as far as romantic comedies go, Sweet Home Alabama did not impress me much -- but definitely worth watching just to see Martha Stewart get punched!). Who says we must be as ambitious in love as we are in life? Should not love be measured by one's regard for another and nothing else? Isn't being happy with a person what matters the most? The specific "why" is difficult to understand and can never be properly explained. Love's a funny thing. Love is blind. Love makes intellectual pretzels of us all.
Fred may have chosen Gunn because he intrigued her. Sure she had a lot in common with Wes, but perhaps that was the problem -- they were too alike. She reached out for Gunn because he was someone outside her usual realm. He could open a whole new world to her. Feel free to sing the Aladdin theme song. Gunn absolutely adored her. And most importantly, he was open and honest about his feelings from the start. ("You know you're gorgeous.") Sure he would never feel comfortable among the intellectual types (see: Supersymmetry), but he tries to understand. He's proud of her and is always there to back her up and cheer her on in all her pursuits. It reminds me of the age-old saying, "What do women want?"
What everyone wants: to be able to choose their own fate. Make their own mistakes. Suffer their own consequences. No one really wants to be sheltered all their lives, we're not forever children. It is why things fell apart between Gunn and Fred. It is why Fred turned to Wesley, and then back to Gunn.
Since joining the cast, Fred had always been my favorite character. She was the 'bookish' one who blossoms beyond anyone's imagination. Kind of like Willow, who had always been my favorite Buffy character. So with whatever credibility I may have on being able to understand Fred because of similarities with her character, I claim that she chose Gunn because he "saw" her in a way no one else did. He saw beyond her intellect, cuteness and southern sweetness. He loved her for the person within, her personality. Their relationship allowed them to grow in ways Wesley and Fred could not. Life is about choices, and with each choice is a different experience. Gunn and Fred was a choice. It may not have been the best choice (what ever is?), but it was definitely not the worst.
Gunn and Fred are necessary because they stood against the odds and survived...at least for a little while. They showed us the same thing that those addictively vulgar reality shows attempt to tell us time and time again to justify their successful existence: that if love is true, it can overcome even the most surreal of obstacles.
It is in our nature to believe in the existence of a 'perfect happiness.' It never has any specific standards, which is why it's often hard to see. Sometimes we doubt it or are blind to it when it's standing right in front of us. Like evolution, it is a work in progress. We tune in every week to see what progress is made or lost -- incredulous, but always hoping. Hoping that a semblance of "love" will prevail. Crass as it may sound, we cannot expect "Angel" and "happily ever after" to come out in the same sentence from Joss Whedon. So riding on Gunn and Fred is the same fleeting hope that Oz and Willow once possessed of a great love that did not have to equate to tragedy. My hopes for a "happily ever after" without all the pain and drama now rest on Gunn and Fred. Because if it can happen for them, then maybe one day it can happen for us.
Remember when there was a site called Angel's Night with a mad MAD forum full of creative, highly intellectual pretzels?
Remember when we wrote thoughtful and articulate articles on the show?
*cackles like a mad evil witch*
Apparently, I had saved a copy of the entire site onto a dusty old CD-R I just found a few hours ago.
Rach. Jeremy. If you are interested in a copy of Why Tortured Souls are so Dang Attractive, Q&A with your favorite ANGEL members or the complete Haldol Chronicles -- you know where to find me.
I just spent the last few minutes laughing and being thoroughly awwed by a rather passionate article on The Necessity of Fred and Gunn. Complete with reference to Dawson Creek's Pacey and Joey, reality series Joe Millionaire and The Bachelor(ette). God, I feel old. Like some kind of pre-fandom fandom veteran.
One thing is for sure, though. There is a HUGE irony in my passionate defense of illogical romances facing unfavourable odds that can now be called my personal life. XDDDD
____
The Necessity of Fred and Gunn
This is not a pro-Gunn & Fred rant.
Well, technically it is, but for the most part it isn't. It's not so much an article on Gunn and Fred as it is an article on the essence of Gunn and Fred. You'll understand soon enough.
The essence is what fairytale fluff is made of. I want Gunn and Fred to have a happily ever after simply because I want to believe it is possible to realize dreams into reality. That love does not have to adhere to any norms or expectations, and that sometimes such standards can be wrong. Deep down, I know many people suffer from the same 'fairytale syndrome'. It's a flaw in the human condition. Its a big reason why, despite how ruthless and crass the likes of Joe Millionaire and The Bachelor(rette) were, hundreds of millions of people still tuned in every week. Sure we rolled our eyes and tried to fight the desire to smack our television (because by some illogical reasoning, it was concluded that if we can express our irritation at our TV, it will be transmitted to the contestants the same way their silliness is transmitted to us), yet every week there we were, glued to our seats and unable to turn our eyes away from the flickering screen. We watched with scorn, with horror, with disbelief at how much people would degrade themselves for 15 minutes of fame…and with a deeply buried hope under the guise of skepticism that maybe, just maybe, there is an actual attraction.
My friends, love is like magic and miracles - we want to believe, even for a little while.
It has been my experience that no B/A-shipper did not also profess being a hopeless romantic. The phrase has been used often, but what does it mean exactly? The belief that true love is unconquerable? That love can last forever? That even the most impossible and unlikely can fall madly in love? The greatest love stories of the past and present are exactly that: Romeo & Juliet. A Love Story. Beauty and the Beast (my all-time childhood favorite). Castaways (not the Madonna picture, god forbid! The original, italian version). Pretty Woman. Titanic. And any and all couples that have ever made you cry and made your heart flutter as you sigh, "I want a Pacey."
Now don't get me wrong - I was never a fan of Dawson's Creek. I openly admitted that if there had been no Dawson (at least not as a title character) I would've probably watched it. The only thing about the show that had ever caught my interest was Pacey and Joey. It was by chance that I was flipping channels one boring evening and caught them on my television. There was something about them that sparked my fascination - the unabashed bad boy and the smart, shy good girl. From the beginning it was told that the soul-mates were best friends Dawson and Joey. They were compatible. It made sense. By golly, it was given! There was no way the sweet, down-to-earth, secretly crushing over her best friend, hard working and smart girl-next-door would ever fall for the rebel who first made waves by having an affair with his high school teacher. Nor he her. And yet....
There were a million reasons why they wouldn't/shouldn't have worked. Yet somehow, they clicked. Just as Buffy and Angel had been, arguably, the greatest character storyline on BtVS - so was Pacey and Joey for DC.
But I digress.
Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof posed the question: "A fish may love a bird, but where would they live?"
The answer I want to believe in is: Somewhere. Anywhere. They will find a place and a way.
I want to believe in the strength of the human spirit. I want to believe in its stubbornness to march onwards even if all reasoning points to the conclusion that it's going the wrong way. I want to believe that human progress is not in perfecting reason, but in pushing the limits and expanding our horizon. A dreamer rejects reality and the supposed limits that comes with it. The risks are high and many have been destroyed by daring to dream, but was not the invention of flight worth it? Would we have rather preferred to live in a world we believed was flat?
I want to believe that there is no fate but what we make.
Which, after much ranting and digressing, I attempt to get my point across: Fred chose Gunn. No one influenced her choice. Love was not and should not be logicked. Like the weather, it can't and often won't be predicted accurately. But it can be seen, and there is no denying that there is chemistry between Gunn and Fred. Why did the PTBs behind the show match them up? Because they clicked. It was a suprising chemistry, but it worked. And it was definitely not the sensible matching that Fred and Wesley would've been.
What about Fred and Wesley, anyway? There could have been something between Fred and Wesley of the past, but not the Wesley we know now. I don't think he quite knows it himself, but the direction he's headed right now does not cross with Fred's.
I have a theory - which now crosses into more bias, personal territory - that Wesley does not really love Fred. Not like he did initially. Not like before she chose Gunn because he was too late in expressing his feelings for her. I suspect his love has become more superficial (and perhaps always had been a bit so). My theory is that Wesley was more captivated by the purity and innocence that Fred embodied. She was sweet. She was smart. He did not love her so much as he loved what she represented to him. Does anyone else remember his first love since moving to LA? Guise will be Guise, Virginia Bryce? In many ways, she has more in common with Lilah than she does with Fred. Not that I would really be against Wesley and Fred. My only grudge is that it reawakens the Dawson-dilemma: everyone naturally expecting the two to get together. Where's the fun in love if it's predictable? Passion just doesn't have the same ring to it when it's reasonable; the excitement isn't quite there.
I'm almost done. Honest.
But first let me extend on the "fairytale syndrome". I do not know a single woman who does not dream of her Prince Charming one day coming to sweep her away to his castle. However, not all Prince Charmings live in castles - or are sophisticated, well mannered Princes, for that matter. Sometimes they're $19,000US gruff but charming construction workers. Sometimes the girl chooses the southern country boy rather than the Jonjon-like son of New York's Governor (as far as romantic comedies go, Sweet Home Alabama did not impress me much -- but definitely worth watching just to see Martha Stewart get punched!). Who says we must be as ambitious in love as we are in life? Should not love be measured by one's regard for another and nothing else? Isn't being happy with a person what matters the most? The specific "why" is difficult to understand and can never be properly explained. Love's a funny thing. Love is blind. Love makes intellectual pretzels of us all.
Fred may have chosen Gunn because he intrigued her. Sure she had a lot in common with Wes, but perhaps that was the problem -- they were too alike. She reached out for Gunn because he was someone outside her usual realm. He could open a whole new world to her. Feel free to sing the Aladdin theme song. Gunn absolutely adored her. And most importantly, he was open and honest about his feelings from the start. ("You know you're gorgeous.") Sure he would never feel comfortable among the intellectual types (see: Supersymmetry), but he tries to understand. He's proud of her and is always there to back her up and cheer her on in all her pursuits. It reminds me of the age-old saying, "What do women want?"
What everyone wants: to be able to choose their own fate. Make their own mistakes. Suffer their own consequences. No one really wants to be sheltered all their lives, we're not forever children. It is why things fell apart between Gunn and Fred. It is why Fred turned to Wesley, and then back to Gunn.
Since joining the cast, Fred had always been my favorite character. She was the 'bookish' one who blossoms beyond anyone's imagination. Kind of like Willow, who had always been my favorite Buffy character. So with whatever credibility I may have on being able to understand Fred because of similarities with her character, I claim that she chose Gunn because he "saw" her in a way no one else did. He saw beyond her intellect, cuteness and southern sweetness. He loved her for the person within, her personality. Their relationship allowed them to grow in ways Wesley and Fred could not. Life is about choices, and with each choice is a different experience. Gunn and Fred was a choice. It may not have been the best choice (what ever is?), but it was definitely not the worst.
Gunn and Fred are necessary because they stood against the odds and survived...at least for a little while. They showed us the same thing that those addictively vulgar reality shows attempt to tell us time and time again to justify their successful existence: that if love is true, it can overcome even the most surreal of obstacles.
It is in our nature to believe in the existence of a 'perfect happiness.' It never has any specific standards, which is why it's often hard to see. Sometimes we doubt it or are blind to it when it's standing right in front of us. Like evolution, it is a work in progress. We tune in every week to see what progress is made or lost -- incredulous, but always hoping. Hoping that a semblance of "love" will prevail. Crass as it may sound, we cannot expect "Angel" and "happily ever after" to come out in the same sentence from Joss Whedon. So riding on Gunn and Fred is the same fleeting hope that Oz and Willow once possessed of a great love that did not have to equate to tragedy. My hopes for a "happily ever after" without all the pain and drama now rest on Gunn and Fred. Because if it can happen for them, then maybe one day it can happen for us.