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oyceterWent to Fandom Wank and found a really funny thread on some anti-yaoi community somewhere. All parties are arguing about yaoi, definitions and anime with some statements of expertise (I've had Japanese friends and taken a course on Japanese pop culture!). And the entire thing amuses me to no extent because all of them seem to be saying, "This is what it is, damnit, no ambiguity, just this!!" Hey, why didn't anyone tell me that? Then I could have just not written my thesis and spent those four or five years digging up books and articles on anime and yaoi somewhere else! It's not very nice laughing at them for getting things wrong, huh. I guess it was just how some of the people in the antiyaoi thread seemed to think their opinion was written in stone when in most of the scholarship I've read, things are very much up in the air.
Anyway, was really going to do a post on my thoughts about Angel S5, partially in response to one of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scrollgirl's posts a while ago, on her problems with a certain character on Angel. Not bashy, scrollgirl! I just reread the post and was thinking about my ideal S5 again.
I'm extremely excited about S5 Angel. I think I can do this because 1) I have no problem with Spike 2) I wasn't supremely attached to Connor.
As to point one, I think I'm looking forward to having Spike on Angel because I keep thinking of it as a sort of Buffy S3. I kind of want Spike to be Angel's shadow self so that we can explore issues about vampires with souls in the same way season 3 managed to explore more about the nature of the Slayer with the addition of Faith. And I like Angel angst. Actually, I really want to see a shanshued Spike, because as so many people have said, it's not Angel's destiny to be happy. Angel tries to do what's best for those he loves and gets out of their lives; Angel broods; Angel sometimes believes he can never be redeemed. And how perfect would it be to bring all these things about Angel to light with human Spike there taunting him for his inadequacies and making him think about his own vampire nature and his soul? I want Angel to think about things like, why could vampire Spike go to Africa to seek out a soul when he had to be ensouled? And no, I'm not doing the this means Spike is so much better and a special vampire etc. argument, because I want to see what it says about Angel. Just like when Buffy had to completely rethink her own world view when hey, she wasn't the only Slayer in town. She wasn't special simply by being a Slayer anymore! And I think this would be a great chance to do it to Angel... he's not the only vamp with a soul anymore. So now what? Maybe he could have an Epiphany type epiphany -- maybe just being a vampire with a soul isn't good enough. Instead, maybe Angel is different because he's given all the people in AI a family, made them a home. Maybe it's because he believes in people like Faith, people who everyone else has given up on. I don't know. Anyhow, I want to see Spike on the show for that, to be Angel's shadow self.
As to point two... Just read a few interviews where Tim Minear and other Angel writers were talking about setting up Home, Jasmine, and Evil!Cordy since Loyalty! Wow. But yeah, I do have a few misgivings here. I hope they don't completely forget about Connor, because he was getting very interesting. That, and the mindwipe seriously interferes with continuity, although I'm interested in how they'll patch that up. So here's to the Angel crew figuring it out (and more Angel angst!).
I'm also very psyched about what they're doing with Gunn. Not that I know, but the boy has a storyline! Woohoo! I also am hoping for the return of morally ambiguous Fred, who zapped Connor and tried to kill someone. I kind of am seeing Fred as the last bastion of do-goodness of AI, who grows increasingly worried about the corruption and whatnot, because she didn't agree to be in there really. And she looked so hesitant in Home. And of course I'm looking forward to more Lilah/Wes, my current pairing of choice. Or just Lilah snarking at everyone, like in Calvary, and Wes being Wes.
Anyway, was really going to do a post on my thoughts about Angel S5, partially in response to one of
scrollgirl's posts a while ago, on her problems with a certain character on Angel. Not bashy, scrollgirl! I just reread the post and was thinking about my ideal S5 again.I'm extremely excited about S5 Angel. I think I can do this because 1) I have no problem with Spike 2) I wasn't supremely attached to Connor.
As to point one, I think I'm looking forward to having Spike on Angel because I keep thinking of it as a sort of Buffy S3. I kind of want Spike to be Angel's shadow self so that we can explore issues about vampires with souls in the same way season 3 managed to explore more about the nature of the Slayer with the addition of Faith. And I like Angel angst. Actually, I really want to see a shanshued Spike, because as so many people have said, it's not Angel's destiny to be happy. Angel tries to do what's best for those he loves and gets out of their lives; Angel broods; Angel sometimes believes he can never be redeemed. And how perfect would it be to bring all these things about Angel to light with human Spike there taunting him for his inadequacies and making him think about his own vampire nature and his soul? I want Angel to think about things like, why could vampire Spike go to Africa to seek out a soul when he had to be ensouled? And no, I'm not doing the this means Spike is so much better and a special vampire etc. argument, because I want to see what it says about Angel. Just like when Buffy had to completely rethink her own world view when hey, she wasn't the only Slayer in town. She wasn't special simply by being a Slayer anymore! And I think this would be a great chance to do it to Angel... he's not the only vamp with a soul anymore. So now what? Maybe he could have an Epiphany type epiphany -- maybe just being a vampire with a soul isn't good enough. Instead, maybe Angel is different because he's given all the people in AI a family, made them a home. Maybe it's because he believes in people like Faith, people who everyone else has given up on. I don't know. Anyhow, I want to see Spike on the show for that, to be Angel's shadow self.
As to point two... Just read a few interviews where Tim Minear and other Angel writers were talking about setting up Home, Jasmine, and Evil!Cordy since Loyalty! Wow. But yeah, I do have a few misgivings here. I hope they don't completely forget about Connor, because he was getting very interesting. That, and the mindwipe seriously interferes with continuity, although I'm interested in how they'll patch that up. So here's to the Angel crew figuring it out (and more Angel angst!).
I'm also very psyched about what they're doing with Gunn. Not that I know, but the boy has a storyline! Woohoo! I also am hoping for the return of morally ambiguous Fred, who zapped Connor and tried to kill someone. I kind of am seeing Fred as the last bastion of do-goodness of AI, who grows increasingly worried about the corruption and whatnot, because she didn't agree to be in there really. And she looked so hesitant in Home. And of course I'm looking forward to more Lilah/Wes, my current pairing of choice. Or just Lilah snarking at everyone, like in Calvary, and Wes being Wes.
Um...
Tue, May. 20th, 2003 03:39 pm (UTC)I'm bored at work today, so I'm reading people's old LJ entries. So you may already know this, Scroll, but I'm going to go into my Wesley!Continuity rant anyway because it's my *hot button issue*. Or actually, it's the the hot button issue I can actually think about. If I think about Connor being gone, I will possibly implode.
Anyway. The mind-wipe effects Wesley's character continuity completely and has MAJOR consequences for him as a character.
In Season 3, Wesley went through one of the most emotionally wrenching trials of his life. In an attempt to prevent Angel from killing his own son, he took Connor away. Although he was well-intentioned, this action lead to a chain of events that took Wesley into darkness.
Holtz got his hands on Connor and took him into a hell dimension. Wesley got his throat cut. Angel found himself unable to forgive Wesley, and Angel's friends kept their distance as well. The only hand reaching out to Wesley was the duplicitious hand of an enemy, and Wesley took that hand for a while. He flirted with Lilah and with the darkness within, tested his mettle against it, got in touch with his own inner tough-guy and came through the tunnel to the other side.
Now all of that is in danger of being forgotten. Re-written. Because the event that triggered it all--the kidnapping of Angel's baby--has been forgotten. "Connor who?" Fred says at the end of Home.
How can Wesley make sense of the character development he's been through in the last year and a half if he doesn't remember Connor? How can ME (Mutant Enemy, the Angel writers) keep Wesley's character integrity in tact if they have to rewrite the events of Seasons 3 and 4 to "write Connor out"?
Re: Um...
Wed, May. 21st, 2003 12:20 pm (UTC)Although I read a great fic by