Four things that always kinda bugged me about Angel: the Series
Hey, so, quite recently, I finished an epic rewatch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series. I use the word "epic" because I was doing this rewatch with a friend, and it took us five years to complete. (It didn't help that during that time, he moved to Seattle for a year and I had a baby and, well, life sure does get in the way of TV-watching sometimes, doesn't it?)
Anyway, it was a lot of fun! But after rewatching AtS in particular, I've found that there are a few plot points that are bugging me. And tonight, I feel like sharing, so I will describe them at length! (Um, this is my first meta in oh my goodness a long time. Please be gentle?)
1) The Shanshu Prophecy
Let's not even talk about that scene at the very end of the series where Angel supposedly invalidates the entire Shanshu Prophecy by "signing it away" to satisfy Sebassis that he's fully committed to the Circle of the Black Thorn. (Well, okay, let's talk about it a teensy bit: since when can you cancel an entire mystically-foreseen chain of events with just a little bit of paperwork? Gotta say, that would've been handy when there was that prophecy about the Master killing Buffy. Or that one about Angel killing Connor.)
The thing that really bothers me about the Shanshu Prophecy is that it was already completely fulfilled a third of the way through AtS season 1. And nobody seems to have noticed.
Think about it! What does the prophecy say? Well, apparently lots of stuff, but there are two key points that everybody (ie: Angel, Wesley, Lilah, Lindsey, Spike, etc.) gets excited about.
One: The vampire with the soul will play a major role in an apocalyptic battle (though it's not clear which side he's going to be on).
Two: Afterwards, the vampire will become human.
(References: AtS 1.22, 2.12, 5.06)
So, first of all, apocalyptic battles? Take your pick! Angel gave Buffy some help in defeating the Master. He helped close the Hellmouth in BtVS 3.13, "The Zeppo." But really, my money's on Acathla, at the end of BtVS season 2. Sucking the entire world into hell? That's pretty apocalyptic, that right there. And Angel certainly played a major role. There's a bit of a hitch, prophecy-wise, in that Angel was soulless at the time-but he did get his soul back right at the end, so I think it works.
Right, and then the turning-human thing. It happened! It happened in AtS episode 1.08, "I Will Remember You." Remember? Angel got some Mohra demon blood in him, which turned out to have a healing property so powerful that it actually healed his deadness. He had a really nice day with Buffy, had sex without going evil, ate some delicious ice cream ... and then got his ass kicked in a fight and decided he needed his vampire superpowers back, and that the best solution was to turn back time 24 hours and prevent the whole thing from ever happening. What?!
Sorry, Angel. You had your Shanshu, and you blew it.
2) The Apocalypse
"The apocalypse, man. You're soaking in it." -Lindsey, AtS 5.17.
So, there's this scene in AtS 2.15 where Holland Manners explains to Angel that hell is other people. Wait, no, that was Sartre. Okay, Holland's message is hard to sum up more succinctly than the scene itself, but I'll try. Angel's trying to get to the "home office" of Wolfram & Hart to kill the Senior Partners, and undead!Holland Manners takes him on an elevator ride. Holland explains to Angel that W&H isn't trying to "win" the apocalypse, exactly, because the status quo is just ducky. Wolfram & Hart is somehow identified with the evil that lurks in the heart and mind of every single living person.
I gotta say, the first time I saw this scene, I got chills when the elevator opened right back where they started. I was all, "That was profound, man."
But when I watched the scene again, after having seen the series through, I got hung up on trying to figure out what it meant within the rules of the AtS universe. Is Holland saying that all of human evil is rooted in an external malevolent source that could potentially be destroyed, leaving us all holding hands and singing Kumbaya in our earthly paradise? Or is he saying that Wolfram & Hart is really just a metaphor for human evil? (I mean, clearly Wolfram & Hart is just a metaphor for human evil, but it would be awfully fourth-wall-breaking for Holland to know that.)
Throughout AtS, the various major players at Wolfram & Hart are preoccupied with the notion of some upcoming apocalypse in which Angel will play an important role. At the end of the series, Lindsey suggests that the apocalypse has already been underway for quite some time, hearkening back to Holland Manners' "hell's on earth" message.
But, um, what does that mean? If normal, everyday life on earth is the apocalypse, then what is Angel's role supposed to be? Angel certainly isn't responsible for 10,000+ years of humans being nasty to each other. Is he supposed to be able to remove the evil from our hearts, somehow? I just don't get it!
3) The Perfect Happiness
Okay, we all know the terms of the curse: if Angel experiences a moment of perfect happiness, he'll lose his soul. And we know that it happened, that this moment of perfect happiness was achieved, when Angel and Buffy had sex. (Presumably at the moment of, er, climax. At least, I've always been under that impression.)
Once Angel gets his soul back, the assumption is made that he and Buffy can't safely have sex anymore. There is much repressed sexual tension, and angst, and finally Angel moves to LA and gets his own show.
But soon there's a hint that the "sex = perfect happiness" equation is maybe a little uncertain. Angel says at one point "I'm not a eunuch. [...] I mean, the curse isn't even all that clear." (AtS 2.06) Having sex with Darla does not make Angel perfectly happy. Neither does sex with Nina. Dream!sex with Cordelia does, but of course that's a bit of a funny situation and anyway the dream includes a full day of wish-fulfillment before it even gets to the sex.
So, the first thing that bugs me is: could Angel ever actually achieve perfect happiness during sex again, given that now he's going to have the horrible potential consequences always and forever at the back of his mind? I mean, wouldn't that knowledge automatically preclude perfect happiness, no matter who he was having sex with?
In other words, couldn't he safely have sex with Buffy now? I mean, in theory, if she still wanted it after that last time?
And the second thing that bugs me is: couldn't perfect happiness occur in a non-sexual context, potentially? I mean, what if one of these centuries he just has a really, really good day?
(I played with that idea once in a drabble.)
4) Those damn Cyborg Ninjas
You know, the ones in "Lineage." Who the hell sent them?! And why?! Gah!
And that is all I have to say about that.
Comments at Dreamwidth:
Anyway, it was a lot of fun! But after rewatching AtS in particular, I've found that there are a few plot points that are bugging me. And tonight, I feel like sharing, so I will describe them at length! (Um, this is my first meta in oh my goodness a long time. Please be gentle?)
1) The Shanshu Prophecy
Let's not even talk about that scene at the very end of the series where Angel supposedly invalidates the entire Shanshu Prophecy by "signing it away" to satisfy Sebassis that he's fully committed to the Circle of the Black Thorn. (Well, okay, let's talk about it a teensy bit: since when can you cancel an entire mystically-foreseen chain of events with just a little bit of paperwork? Gotta say, that would've been handy when there was that prophecy about the Master killing Buffy. Or that one about Angel killing Connor.)
The thing that really bothers me about the Shanshu Prophecy is that it was already completely fulfilled a third of the way through AtS season 1. And nobody seems to have noticed.
Think about it! What does the prophecy say? Well, apparently lots of stuff, but there are two key points that everybody (ie: Angel, Wesley, Lilah, Lindsey, Spike, etc.) gets excited about.
One: The vampire with the soul will play a major role in an apocalyptic battle (though it's not clear which side he's going to be on).
Two: Afterwards, the vampire will become human.
(References: AtS 1.22, 2.12, 5.06)
So, first of all, apocalyptic battles? Take your pick! Angel gave Buffy some help in defeating the Master. He helped close the Hellmouth in BtVS 3.13, "The Zeppo." But really, my money's on Acathla, at the end of BtVS season 2. Sucking the entire world into hell? That's pretty apocalyptic, that right there. And Angel certainly played a major role. There's a bit of a hitch, prophecy-wise, in that Angel was soulless at the time-but he did get his soul back right at the end, so I think it works.
Right, and then the turning-human thing. It happened! It happened in AtS episode 1.08, "I Will Remember You." Remember? Angel got some Mohra demon blood in him, which turned out to have a healing property so powerful that it actually healed his deadness. He had a really nice day with Buffy, had sex without going evil, ate some delicious ice cream ... and then got his ass kicked in a fight and decided he needed his vampire superpowers back, and that the best solution was to turn back time 24 hours and prevent the whole thing from ever happening. What?!
Sorry, Angel. You had your Shanshu, and you blew it.
2) The Apocalypse
"The apocalypse, man. You're soaking in it." -Lindsey, AtS 5.17.
So, there's this scene in AtS 2.15 where Holland Manners explains to Angel that hell is other people. Wait, no, that was Sartre. Okay, Holland's message is hard to sum up more succinctly than the scene itself, but I'll try. Angel's trying to get to the "home office" of Wolfram & Hart to kill the Senior Partners, and undead!Holland Manners takes him on an elevator ride. Holland explains to Angel that W&H isn't trying to "win" the apocalypse, exactly, because the status quo is just ducky. Wolfram & Hart is somehow identified with the evil that lurks in the heart and mind of every single living person.
I gotta say, the first time I saw this scene, I got chills when the elevator opened right back where they started. I was all, "That was profound, man."
But when I watched the scene again, after having seen the series through, I got hung up on trying to figure out what it meant within the rules of the AtS universe. Is Holland saying that all of human evil is rooted in an external malevolent source that could potentially be destroyed, leaving us all holding hands and singing Kumbaya in our earthly paradise? Or is he saying that Wolfram & Hart is really just a metaphor for human evil? (I mean, clearly Wolfram & Hart is just a metaphor for human evil, but it would be awfully fourth-wall-breaking for Holland to know that.)
Throughout AtS, the various major players at Wolfram & Hart are preoccupied with the notion of some upcoming apocalypse in which Angel will play an important role. At the end of the series, Lindsey suggests that the apocalypse has already been underway for quite some time, hearkening back to Holland Manners' "hell's on earth" message.
But, um, what does that mean? If normal, everyday life on earth is the apocalypse, then what is Angel's role supposed to be? Angel certainly isn't responsible for 10,000+ years of humans being nasty to each other. Is he supposed to be able to remove the evil from our hearts, somehow? I just don't get it!
3) The Perfect Happiness
Okay, we all know the terms of the curse: if Angel experiences a moment of perfect happiness, he'll lose his soul. And we know that it happened, that this moment of perfect happiness was achieved, when Angel and Buffy had sex. (Presumably at the moment of, er, climax. At least, I've always been under that impression.)
Once Angel gets his soul back, the assumption is made that he and Buffy can't safely have sex anymore. There is much repressed sexual tension, and angst, and finally Angel moves to LA and gets his own show.
But soon there's a hint that the "sex = perfect happiness" equation is maybe a little uncertain. Angel says at one point "I'm not a eunuch. [...] I mean, the curse isn't even all that clear." (AtS 2.06) Having sex with Darla does not make Angel perfectly happy. Neither does sex with Nina. Dream!sex with Cordelia does, but of course that's a bit of a funny situation and anyway the dream includes a full day of wish-fulfillment before it even gets to the sex.
So, the first thing that bugs me is: could Angel ever actually achieve perfect happiness during sex again, given that now he's going to have the horrible potential consequences always and forever at the back of his mind? I mean, wouldn't that knowledge automatically preclude perfect happiness, no matter who he was having sex with?
In other words, couldn't he safely have sex with Buffy now? I mean, in theory, if she still wanted it after that last time?
And the second thing that bugs me is: couldn't perfect happiness occur in a non-sexual context, potentially? I mean, what if one of these centuries he just has a really, really good day?
(I played with that idea once in a drabble.)
4) Those damn Cyborg Ninjas
You know, the ones in "Lineage." Who the hell sent them?! And why?! Gah!
And that is all I have to say about that.
Comments at Dreamwidth: