elisi | Birthdays and Angel love.

It's the birthday of two lovely LJ ladies today:

mrs_underhill, who always has wonderful meta-insights, and

girlpire who writes like an angel! (Seriously, if there's anyone out there who hasn't read Friday yet, then run, don't walk. Unless you're allergic to Spangel of course.)

Hope you both have a *fabulous* day and get spoiled rotten. I'd totally have baked you a cake, except I think it'd probably not have survived the journey...

Otherwise I think I might have mentioned that Darcy and I are (slowly) doing an ATS re-watch? Last night we watched 'War Zone' and then this afternoon sat down to 'Blind Date' and 'To shanshu in LA'. *deeeeeeep sigh* I love season 1 of Angel totally and utterly, even the episodes that are less than stellar. And all the early stuff is so wonderful - Cordy and Wesley and Lilah and Lindsey... *hugs show* Also it's made me want to write like you wouldn't believe. Not this week, what with it being half term (s-i-l took the kids today, hence the daytime TV watching), but who knows, maybe this fic of mine will actually be finished sooner rather than later. (Word count so far: 43,000 words. And I'm maybe 1/3 through. But my muse has returned, yay!)

I'm trying - and struggling - to think of anything else to write. Sorry to be so absent, but life is just rushing past me and I feel like I'm always catching up, so I'm afraid LJ is suffering. Oh and did I mention the icon?

ruuger made it for me, and it is just perfect! *admires it some more* Icons are also good for helping kickstart the muse! :)

ETA: Happy Valentine's everyone! We're not doing anything special (Darcy won't let florists and card shops tell him when to spoil me - and seriously, he's excellent at spoiling me), but we did go out for a lovely meal last night with all our little girls. Family life is wonderful!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, Lindsey as another spiritual "son" failed by Angel... Made me think that that brilliant "Ruiner" vid could just as well include Lindsey sequences, and that they could be paralleled just as well with those of Spike's and Connor's.

Yeah, Lindsey as another spiritual "son" failed by Angel...
Oh I'm not sure that Angel failed him. Sure, Angel was tough, but in the end it was Lindsey's choice. And I think what Lindsey wanted most of all was power, and chose accordingly.

Made me think that that brilliant "Ruiner" vid could just as well include Lindsey sequences, and that they could be paralleled just as well with those of Spike's and Connor's.
Have you read Shanshu Blue by

germaine_pet? One of the best studies of Angel and all his 'sons' ever written. Really - read it now!

Oh I'm not sure that Angel failed him. Sure, Angel was tough, but in the end it was Lindsey's choice.
Yes, Lindsey chose, but he got zero encouragement from Angel to swing the other way. I'm pretty much sure that Lindsey would've made a different choice just for a pat on the back, from Angel. And wait - isn't what that happened in Dead End? And how much that pat on the back, when they stormed the W&H facility together, contributed to Lindsey's decision to leave W&H? I'm sure it contributed a lot, that final encouragement. Even though Lindsey found out, just like Angel would find out (in Angel-6 as well), that it's impossible to leave W&H.
Angel failed Lindsey by washing his hands off him, by refusing to offer even a tiny bit of encouragement. Spike in the same sitiation did all the work himself, and came through anyway. Lindsey was weak, but he could've been saved. While it's still his entire responsibility that he didn't come through. Like a criminal released from prison: if society rejects him and he goes back to crime because he has nowhere to go, it's his fault. But the society is to blame too.

Funny how I was thinking (and even posting in Russian) on the Stairs or Cirith Ungol scene from Tolkien's LotR today, where Gollum was poised on a brink between betrayal and redemption, and how Sam pushed him over the brink to betrayal, with harsh words and rejection. Joss takes a much harsher view of redemption than Tolkien, sure. But still, look at those phrases, they go something like that:
Sam (talking about heroes in books): "I wonder if even Gollum could be in a book some day. I wonder who he will be, a hero or a villain"?
Sam (waking up and seeing Gollum): "What you've been up to, sneaking, you old villain?" And that's what tips the scale, makes Gollum a villain, without recall.

See what I said re. you and meta in my post? *g*

I see your point re. Lindsey, definitely. And yes, Angel isn't exactly at his most encouraging in 'Blind Date' - and yet, I'm not sure he's wrong. What Lindsey wants, is power. And in a very tangible way, W&H have most of the power. Holland Manners plays him *beautifully*, because what they do is corrupt people - and the more potential for good, the more potential for evil.

It all comes down to what Lindsey says in 'Dead End': 'Make them play your game'. That's why he turns them down - because that puts him in the position of power (they want him, but he won't give them what they want). But he comes back, wanting more power - playing Angel, Spike *and* W&H. And all of Angel's efforts were pretty useless, as he himself notices:

Angel: You haven't heard a word I've said. For, like, years back.

Lindsey never 'gets' it. Never understands what motivates Angel. Could he ever learn to? Who knows - but it is not an outcome that Angel thinks likely.

Birthdays and Angel love.

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