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My Angel.
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jnb71976 has written an extraordinary post. It's a rant about s8 (and she is actually being far more generous to its strengths that I am), but at its heart she talks about how s8 has destroyed Angel. I've been toying with the idea of writing an Angel-essay, but I won't have to now, because she wrote this. (Btw, the icon is from a drawing I once made for Anna, and that she then made into an icon for me. Suddenly realised that it captured *my* Angel perfectly.)This is my Angel by
jnb71976:Joss took Angel out of Buffy’s world years ago. Angel loved and grew and succeeded and failed without her influence. He took steps forward, steps back. He created a family, a business, a home. He helped the helpless. He fell down and failed. He got up and tried again. He loved, he defended, he fought. He had a son. He had brothers. He had a sister and a best friend who he fell in love with and who gave him his mission. Was his mission incarnate. He understood, deep down (pun intended) that nothing he did mattered and that all that mattered was what he did. That kindness is the greatest virtue. That loyalty and familial love are to be prized above all things. That the burning pain inside him was not meant to be quelled, but stoked to purpose. Honed. He became someone Buffy would hardly recognize, let alone understand. He was not someone whose countenance Buffy should “bask” in. He was not innocence or light. He was not an ideal to aspire to. He was not the perfect anything. Not perfect happiness. Not perfect boyfriend. Not perfect heart. Not a paragon of true love or morality. He was the dark avenger – he was the soul-saver. He was Connor’s father, first and foremost, to the detriment of everything else. He was Cordelia’s champion. He was brother to Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Lorne, and even Spike.
He was the shadowed figure in the alley. He was the judge and the executioner. He was a terrible dancer and a great big dufus. He loved hockey and ballet and ice cream. He cut himself off from love and had to drag himself back, kicking and grunting. More than once. When he smiled, the room lit up. He was obsessive-compulsive with cleaning and organizing his weapons. When people fell, he caught them. He sang badly to his baby boy and crowds of demons. He wore stylish suits and lamented his puffed-up hair. He was death, and it suited him. He was the dark, and he fought against the dark.
~~~
My favourite vid about Angel (the show) is
yhlee's Have You heard. (You can't win, you can't break even, you can't get out of the game--but you can fight.) Watch it.
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You may not believe this, but I feel rather sorry for Scott Allie. After all, this was Joss's idea, but Allie has to cope with the flak.
I also worry (very selfishly) that in DH's desperate attempts to rehabilitate Angel after this mess, Spike will be even more forgotten.
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It made my morning!
You may not believe this, but I feel rather sorry for Scott Allie. After all, this was Joss's idea, but Allie has to cope with the flak.
*nods* People love a scapegoat... (see Marti Noxon.)
You may not believe this, but I feel rather sorry for Scott Allie. After all, this was Joss's idea, but Allie has to cope with the flak.
Hmmm. Well he's got his own series (again) for a while, so that's good.
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Yes, but not at DH.
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Perfect!
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From the bottom of my heart, thank you for reccing that post! :)
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My Angel isn't the big shiny hero. Hell, my Angel wasn't the big shiny hero back when he was with Buffy, but Buffy was too young and too smitten to understand that fact. Angel's world has NEVER been as black and white as Buffy's, and several times he lied to her to try and soften that fact.
I am an Angel fan first, and a B/A shipper second, which is why after about five minutes of giggling over 'sonic boom sex' I came back down to reality and started questioning this story line. Because I couldn't figure out what possible motivation Angel could have to take the actions he did. Turns out, he didn't really have any motivation at all.
Wow, that's a lot of babble for someone who said they were too tired to say anything. My only excuse is this took almost 30 minutes to write.
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But you're v. right - Angel was never the big shining hero, and yeah, he tried to shield her from that. (I like liars. *g*) And the comics make no sense...
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He enter Twilight's world on one of his worst days ever expecting to see his whole city destroyed but Twilight intervenes just when he's come to expect some agent of the powers to turn up and once agsin offers him the chance to dark hero his way out of it. In fact even more than Whistler or Doyle or Cordelia ever did, it actually shows him he can. He can save plane loads of people he can be the shadowy knight behind the throne, the one with blood on his hands and in his mouth so other people don't have to. It also offers him the one thing he can't admit he wants (the chance to get out of the game, the chance to rest) but slips it past his defenses by making it sound like Buffy's desire not his own.
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As for Twangel... well if what you describe is what happened, then I could just about buy it. However, the Twilight thing goes: B/A sex = world is destroyed and another created. I do not believe that Angel would do that. (See him talking to Jasmine f.ex.) Also - if this was always going to happen, then it makes a mockery of Angel's whole redemption arc. He could just as well have stayed in that alley eating rats until the talking dog came along. (I know I'm exaggerating. But he's was less of a puppet when he was actually made of felt, than he is in s8.)
Mostly I can't understand why Joss thought that this was a good story. I've seen the point of everything he's done (I've not seen Dollhouse, but from what I hear the concept is excellent, but flawed) - with this, I'm at a loss. And I'm usually really good at trying to see the good in things that others dislike. *shrugs*
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I'm not a fan of redemption stories but they always have their ups and downs. It would have been better for the world at several points in his career if he's stuck to rats and alleys. When he activated Acathala or when Jasmine brought him back from hell so he could beget Connor who could beget her, just for apocalyptic starters. He's always been a puppet, always wanted to believe in the great puppetmeisters in the sky. What he's become is the natural conclusion of all he's ever been. It's his punishment as I'm sure Buffy's will be to have to make an impossible choice.
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But if that was the case, why did he show ZERO reaction when Buffy discovered that the world was being invaded by demons? The really real Angel would have jumped through that gap between worlds with a 'Need to save me son!' before Buffy had time to speak. The story, and his motivations do not make sense. If Angel has been pulled from a future where LA (at least) has been destroyed, and accepted the Twangel mission in order to ultimately save it - he should be upset and shocked that he accomplished exactly the opposite. Plus, no Angel I've ever know would think that somehow he *deserved* a happily ever after while the world went to hell (literally). He might be a bit dumb at times, but he's not that deluded.
As for puppetry, then yes, there is certainly a lot of that. But. One thing Angel learned during S5 is not to play other people's game - get them to play yours. The whole point of their last battle was the summary for the vid I linked to: You can't win, you can't break even, you can't get out of the game--but you can fight.
(We're never going to agree on this, I don't think. The problem is that we're arguing over Angel's motivations, both of us projecting our own interpretation. The real problem is that the writers haven't bothered to explain what's going on. And that's bad writing, full stop.)
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Angel didn't show ZERO reaction to seeing the demons attacking Buffy's friends. His reaction was heavily muted but he stuttered and tried to explain it away. I'd say it was pretty clear that by this time Twilight's influence on him is almost overwhelming but even then (as Miss Kitty admits it's not complete - Buffy is still able to break through it). Do you really think Angel jumping in to save 'me son' (is that a bad oirish accent?) is the only in character reaction he could have? Was he in character when he stood by and watched Connor struggling throughout S4 and in the end decided the best solution was to pay W&H to wipe him out and build him new? Or was that more bad writing? I do believe Angel loves Connor but his way of loving is complicated and conflicted and real, it's not simple Disney movie father love.
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In Power Play/NFA Angel explains in great detail why he's doing what he's doing. You are allowed to think it's monumentally stupid, self-centered and that's trusting the Powers when he really, really shouldn't, but he says why. With Twangel, we don't even know how much of the plan he was privy to, how much Twilight was influencing him, where he came from or why he suddenly thought that Buffy was the single most important thing in the world, when really, he got over her years before.
is that a bad oirish accent?
LOL! No, that's me not being able to type after I've just woken up. :)
I do believe Angel loves Connor but his way of loving is complicated and conflicted and real, it's not simple Disney movie father love.
Oh absolutely. I also know that he basically sold his soul and his redemption for his son's sake. Again you might think the mindwipe a foolish choice, but he thought that this was the only way of saving him. (And really, considering that the boy was suicidal, he didn't have many choices.)
I'm glad the comics work for you, but for me they've pretty much destroyed my faith in Joss' writerly skills, which makes me sad.
Actually, I'm not saying that I could NEVER see Angel acting this way. I'm saying that we have been shown zilch to support his actions. For an example of this done right, see the Tenth Doctor's arc. The comics feel a little like we've been following Rose's story after she got stranded in Pete's world, and then suddenly out of the blue comes the Doctor, all 'Screw the Laws of Time I'm going to SAVE you, and we'll live happily ever after, and the universe can just do as I tell it!' which would be jarring, to say the least. The problem is that this is Buffy's story, and Angel has been roped in to serve it with no explanation.
(I'm going in circles now. Sorry. Just ignore me. I just can't understand why anyone would write this. I really, honestly can't wrap my head around it. There's possible a kernel of a good story inside it somewhere, but if you need half the cast to be possessed to tell the story, maybe you should re-think it.)
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He was the shadowed figure in the alley. He was the judge and the executioner. He was a terrible dancer and a great big dufus. He loved hockey and ballet and ice cream. He cut himself off from love and had to drag himself back, kicking and grunting. More than once. When he smiled, the room lit up. He was obsessive-compulsive with cleaning and organizing his weapons. When people fell, he caught them. He sang badly to his baby boy and crowds of demons. He wore stylish suits and lamented his puffed-up hair. He was death, and it suited him. He was the dark, and he fought against the dark.
Yup, that's my Angel. I never found him all that interesting in Sunnydale (except when he was Evil) but once he moved to LA and learned to take himself a little less seriously I loved him. I just almost forgot why!
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I can see it happening all over fandom and it makes me terribly sad. :(
Yup, that's my Angel. I never found him all that interesting in Sunnydale (except when he was Evil) but once he moved to LA and learned to take himself a little less seriously I loved him. I just almost forgot why!
As someone said - Twangel would never wear that pink helmet...
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Thanks for reccing !
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(I like the fact that Jeanty - or maybe it was Scott Allie - got a lot of questions about 'Why is everyone OOC?' in a recent interview. Less brilliant was the fact that he seemed completely baffled that anyone would think so...)
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I'm not a big fan of Angel in general, but...from what I hear of the comics, they're being completely unfair to him.
"If nothing that we do matters then all that matters is what we do" is one of my favorite lines of all time.
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"If nothing that we do matters then all that matters is what we do" is one of my favorite lines of all time.
Same here. I HATE that comic!Angel has apparently never realised this.
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