elisi's humble abode

bookworm posted this in AOQ's 'final thoughts' thread. I'd never read it before so I thought I'd share:

The ats-special edition (only available in R2) comes with a similar letter by Joss as does the Chosen collection; his final thoughts or something; I thought I'll post it as a completist...


"And she'll have a love interest, a mysterious stranger named Angel who turns out to be a vampire! But a vampire with a *soul*, cursed to walk the night in eternal remorse for his evil deeds..."

No wait. That's way too cheesy. Nobody will ever buy that.

Such were my thoughts as I developed the TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I knew Angel wouldn't (forgive me the pun) fly. I was frantic. And then something wonderful happened.

I totally didn't come up with anything better.

So this guy was born, and not only did people buy him, they loved him. *I* loved him, at least 76 % platonically. I loved him enough to create, with my partner in crime David Greenwalt, his own show. "Angel". And then it got weird. Well weirder.

The thing is, "Buffy" was a simple premise that developed into a complex show. "Angel" was not a simple premise, not for guys like Dave and me. We couldn't just have a noble, handsome, dark hero rush in and save various days. We tried. That ain't life. We found that "Angel" needed to be a show about our darkest journeys, not unlike Buffy except that Buffy had a grounding: she had a destiny, an arc, a posse. We knew where she had to go. We had NO IDEA where Angel had to go. And so he went everywhere, anywhere: up down, good, bad, left, farther left... off the edge of the world and home for supper and the thing is, it ended up being as much more about our own lives than Buffy was. We weren't 'chosen' (not for sports, anyway). We had no destiny. We lived on the edge of chaos, personally, narratively... even as Angel surrounded himself with more and more of a family (and we found more and more wonderful actors for David Boreanaz to play against), that central core of warmth and safety that Buffy enjoyed was missing. The result is before you in toto: The long, strange trip that is five years in the life a vampire. Not long enough, I would argue, but plenty with the strange. For your listy goodness, a few of the moments herein that made my life worth living:

--Angel locking a roomful of lawyers in with two peckish vampire gals.
--Buffy swearing never to forget her time with Angel, right before she does.
--Faith in the rain, begging Angel to kill her.
--Princess Cordelia.
--Darla's horrified accusation: "While Spike - SPIKE - was out killing a Slayer, you were busy saving Missionaries!... From *me*. (True emotional Vampire logic, courtesy of Tim Minear.)
--Lilah dressing up like Fred to seduce Wesley. (Gentlemen, start your therapists!)
--Any and all karaoke.
--Fred and Wesley, deeply drunk.
--Gunn in the White Room, meeting his match.
--The biggest, bloodiest and most personal Spike/Angel fight we've ever shot.
--The silliest, most pointless Spike/Angel argument we've ever shot.
--Dude, *puppets!*

With no star to guide us, we sailed into waters filled with dragons and mermaids and a few really impressive icebergs. We made some of our most compelling television, reinventing season by season, show by show, moment to moment. This is our odd little odyssey, and no, we never did reach the shores of safety, but that's sort of the point. We don't go through the Hell of existence - the pain, the drama, the meaninlessness and confusion - because it's safe, or simple, or will end happily now or ever after. We do it because nobody ever came up with anything better.

So enjoy it. I did.

Joss Whedon

"How sick am I of Noxon-bashing? Enough to break my rule of silence, certainly. I've had so many people rag on her for aspects of the show I developed, or praise me for things she came up with. She's been a vital part of everything people love about Buffy since she overhauled the halloween script in season two. She's as good a story-breaker as I've ever worked with. And she's a leader.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, Vmars. You are uninformed and rude. That's mine."

joss

http://whedonesque.com/comments/12711


Damn straight! Thank you Joss!

(Snagged from frelling_tralk)

ETA: This of course also ties in with The Educated Fangirl's Guide To The Spike Wars!

Joss is thinking about doing a S6 of ATS as comics!

(Try this link instead!)

*takes deep calming breath*

S8 of Buffy? Still not too excited - but Angel? I wants it! So, so badly! (Yes 'Not Fade Away' is the perfect ending to the show, but...)

Guess it just goes to show that I'm an Angel girl at heart. And of course Angel has Spike!

Must run, but... OMG! S6! SQUEE!

::lays many offerings at the altar of TPTB::

OK, I've been pondering the whole comic book thing and reading various posts, and here's my two cents (or should that be pennies?).

( No to the outfit, yes to the ret-con... )

For anyone who might have missed it - I posted the Epilogue to Illyria, Alone on Friday.

Since I have very little time and buttersideup said what I was going to say, I'll just quote her:

...the thought of there being a comic continuation in addition to a Spike movie makes me feel a lot better than the movie alone would have. I guess I must be thinking about this in the opposite direction that most people are, 'cause I could see Joss doing a movie first about Spike off doing something, without Buffy or Angel around, and then release a comic starting with Buffy in Rome and then eventually having her and Spike meet again in a way that ties in with however the movie ends. And I still trust Joss to do that in a way that would make me happy, even though I doubt he'd end it with them riding off into the sunset and living happily ever after. But I do think he would still leave open the possibility for that, and that's enough for me.

And umm, if he does end up completely closing the book on Spuffy, I reserve the right to get upset because I'm still a lot more irrational about my pairing than I like to pretend I am. :)

Also I keep telling myself that AtS was to have finished with Spike shanshuing and going off to find Buffy!

ETA: Turned off comments since I have so little time for replying.

I'm sure you all know this by now, but Joss posted on Whendonesque!

See, the Buffyverse glows in my brain with a new, overreaching arc that will include the comics, Spike, and more. It's taking shape and soon you will know its name. And you will tremble.

Squeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!

ETA: Yes I am also terrified of course, but right now the excitement is winning!

Super sekkrit message to lillianmorgan and kittyzams: Can you think of a name? Will e-mail at some point, but Darcy has taken over the iMac for the moment, so if you want to communicate use my LJ address.