Slick Angels

[drcpunk]

Okay, I admit that Angel is not the world's greatest tv show and is far from High Art. And I only came in this year starting when Faith came back, and missed everything after Connor first popped up from last year.

But they are just having so much fun with their apocalypse, as opposed to all the moping and whining I've been seeing on Buffy. And it is an apocalypse worthy of the hype.

This week -- well, no spoilers. But I will note that Angel's motivational speeches, at their darkest and glummest, are better than Buffy's. And the climax of this episode could almost make me believe that, yes, Virginia, the writers had exactly this in mind from episode one.

No, I don't really believe it. But I respect a good con (as in retcon) like this.

Comments

[avram]

What are you thinking of as the climax?

Angel's had its share of angst. The season with Darla was pretty angsty. Still the show has done a really good job of mixing in the funny with the angsty. And the edgy. You missed some great stuff between Wesley and Lyla.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't mind catching the stuff I missed.

The climax? Well, we've got this antichrist figure masquerading as the messiah -- a serious apocalypse thing. The sort of thing Angel fights all the time. But this one really is that big, and the answers lie on a planet with an atmosphere unbreathable by humans. I could almost believe that this is what the Powers that Be had in mind when they chose as a champion a vampire with a soul. I could almost believe this was planned from the beginning.

[avram]

There's the problem with this sort of thing. If the Powers could plot the angles that far in advance, why couldn't they just have given Cordy (or Doyle) a vision about all this? "Hey, the Powers say Angel shouldn't sleep with Darla, and if he does and she has a kid, don't let Wesley swipe him and give him to Holtz, and if that happens anyway, watch out for Cordy when she comes back with her memory gone, 'cause she'll be possessed by a vastly powerful evil, and if it all goes to shit anyway, here's the evil's True Name with which you can defeat her."

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

I presume that the PTB have a hands-off policy - they can show glimpses, but never direct advice. This is assuming the PTB were a benign, helpful force to begin with - I have been theorizing this entire season that the PTB may neutral forces trying to maintain cosmic balance instead of tipping the scales to definitively cosmic good.
I don't believe the writers had this exact arc sent up since the beginning, but I do believe that Cordelia's character progression up to her ascension was. I am willing to believe that it was intended for Queen C to grow, mature, and become outright saintly under the pressure of her visions - but not for the greater good. I don't believe it was intended for her to be the mother of the antichrist - perhaps she was originally supposed to be host.
As for the vampire with a soul fated to have a pivotal role in the apocalypse - well, if this IS what the writers were aiming for the whole time - that's pretty slick. I can buy Angel was required as one of the few earthly organism that don't breathe. I find that more acceptable than Angel's primarily role was to be the Grandpappy of the Devourer.