Meta! Rambling! Angel!
Over the last few months, I've been rewatching BtVS and AtS, and during S3 of BtVS some things began to make sense to me that hadn't before. This stuff has kinda been brewing for a long time, and it all just burped on the page, so it might not really be an essay or great meta or whatever. I'm going for three things, here
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Damn, why don't you live close enough to do this over tea???
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Just did (perhaps obviously). Is that on StA? I feel like I read the first part and not the rest. I know you wrote it forever ago, but (of course) it still holds true and it's a really good overview of Angel.
I'm not so sure this one is--I'm not so sure I agree with all my points, like I said in the very beginning. I think the main thing I wanted to explain to myself was this (taken from your Idol essay):
"Angel has never been shown to hesitate when sacrifices need to be made; he will take on insurmountable odds for a good cause, and he will give up everything in order to save those he loves, or the world at large. But Angel has a great deal of difficulty accepting the consequences for those kinds of choices. He is, as stated earlier, a perfect martyr, willing to suffer for his sins and the sins of mankind. What he cannot stand, however, is to be called on his choices, to have them debated or declared wrong."I think the question I was asking myself when I ( ... )
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*rubs hands together with GLEE*
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I don't really agree with Angel/Angelus being Liam, no more than I agree with any other vampire still being the person they were. IMO, they're based on the person, but once they get vampy the person is gone, replaced by something that isn't and can never be human (not unless they change back somehow, Shanshu, whatchacallit demon blood, whatever).
If you add a soul to the vamp you get something new, something that still isn't human, it's something more or less, something different, with the same capacity for good and evil, but not human.
I do agree that Angel/Angelus are prety much the same person though, the soul doesn't create a new separate entity.
An excellent meta analysis for Angel. A sidenote, heroes in the Buffyverse get nothing out of it, but they do get loads of people, usually people they care about, dead. It doesn't pay to be a hero in the Joss series.
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Yeah, and lots of people hold that view. I don't think it's something that can really be argued either way. I mean, it can be argued, but not universally decided. One of the reasons I prefer to view it that way is I think it makes Angel (and also Spike) a deeper, more interesting character.
A sidenote, heroes in the Buffyverse get nothing out of it, but they do get loads of people, usually people they care about, dead. It doesn't pay to be a hero in the Joss series.
Definitely agree. I think "Chosen" was supposed to be about Buffy finally catching a break, finally not being alone, finally not having to die young having done nothing but fight evil, but I'm not sure I believe it. Everything in Jossverse up to that point indicated that such relief would never be possible for someone like Buffy. I like the answer in AtS better: Angel would never ever get to catch a break. But Connor could, and that was enough for Angel.
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I'm not an A/Xer either. I mean, it could be an interesting 'ship, except for the fact that neither one of them would EVER EVER NOT IN A MILLION YEARS be interested in one another ;o)
But yeah, Xander and the snow were the two peak points I wanted to get to with this. I always had a problem with Xander wanting to go save Buffy and Angel seeming almost reluctant, since Angel is the one whom Buffy loves, since Angel is the one who becomes a hero on his own show, all that. But it makes sense when you think about it.
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I run off to rec and I stick this in memories.
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Angel/plus any blond/e going 4 EVA!
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Yeah, I felt like until this rewatching I didn't really get what a big influence Darla had on Angel. For Darla to turn him is one thing: it makes him evil, yeah yeah, but in the end it's flipping a switch. But being that parental figure--someone to encourage Angelus, and someone for Angelus to surpass, that's what really made him become. Just as it's not just seeing Buffy, it's experiencing her love, fitting into her circle, seeing the light he thinks is at the end of the tunnel--that makes him become something else. And dude, if I get one more person to open their eyes to B/A being something more than a childhood fling, my work is done.
*smooshes*
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