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Jan. 21st, 2005 10:03 amSo I was thinking about Angelus again (what? It was one of those leather pants moments), and got to thinking this (which again is hardly new for me).
We all know that Spike is rubbish at planning stuff. We also know that Angelus was Spike's 'sire' (whatever exactly that means – but presumably in this case, it means more, 'the person who made me the vampire I am today' rather than 'the person who killed me and made me a vampire'). Seems to me that if you put those two things together, you end up with Spike being a bit unlucky to have such a rotten teacher.
Of course, one could respond that Spike was probably a terrible pupil ('not a quick study' and all that) but then how the hell did he survive all those years alone with the crazy lady, huh? Not saying that Dru is stupid, mind, not at all – but I bet she's really, really bad at map-reading ("No, William, the stars say go straight up!") so someone had to do the practical stuff, didn't they?
Sigh! None of it makes sense. First they tell us Angelus is this big, evil genius, but then they show him making stupid plans that he can't even stick to (he should really stick with the psychological torture, because that's what he's good at, and leave the planning to someone else – like, say, Darla, because I bet that was her job), and not only in BtVS season 2 but again in AtS season 4. And then there's his behaviour in TGiQ (with William looking at him in wide-eyed adoration, so that you end up thinking it's no wonder the poor little chap made a mess of things sometimes, with an example like that to follow). Of course, Angelus suffers from Villain Syndrome, in that he can never win a decisive victory, because the good guys have to triumph in the end (even if this is a Joss show and half of them will have died horrible deaths and the other half will be psychologically scarred for life), so that can't help but make him look kind of stupid sometimes. Still –
Wonder where that goofiness comes from? Did Liam get infected by a particularly goofy demon, or was the goofiness innate? Hard to say – but even Angel has plenty of daft moments; enough to make it pretty clear that he does incredibly stupid things and makes mistakes and sulks and is petty sometimes, just like everyone else.
I like him for that (heroes who are perfect are boring as shit). I like the fact that, like his evil counterpart, he's an idol with feet of clay; but in Angel's case of course, that makes him a person with whom you can laugh and sympathise, whereas with Angelus it just makes you think: "Hmm, evil geniuses are very overrated."
We all know that Spike is rubbish at planning stuff. We also know that Angelus was Spike's 'sire' (whatever exactly that means – but presumably in this case, it means more, 'the person who made me the vampire I am today' rather than 'the person who killed me and made me a vampire'). Seems to me that if you put those two things together, you end up with Spike being a bit unlucky to have such a rotten teacher.
Of course, one could respond that Spike was probably a terrible pupil ('not a quick study' and all that) but then how the hell did he survive all those years alone with the crazy lady, huh? Not saying that Dru is stupid, mind, not at all – but I bet she's really, really bad at map-reading ("No, William, the stars say go straight up!") so someone had to do the practical stuff, didn't they?
Sigh! None of it makes sense. First they tell us Angelus is this big, evil genius, but then they show him making stupid plans that he can't even stick to (he should really stick with the psychological torture, because that's what he's good at, and leave the planning to someone else – like, say, Darla, because I bet that was her job), and not only in BtVS season 2 but again in AtS season 4. And then there's his behaviour in TGiQ (with William looking at him in wide-eyed adoration, so that you end up thinking it's no wonder the poor little chap made a mess of things sometimes, with an example like that to follow). Of course, Angelus suffers from Villain Syndrome, in that he can never win a decisive victory, because the good guys have to triumph in the end (even if this is a Joss show and half of them will have died horrible deaths and the other half will be psychologically scarred for life), so that can't help but make him look kind of stupid sometimes. Still –
Wonder where that goofiness comes from? Did Liam get infected by a particularly goofy demon, or was the goofiness innate? Hard to say – but even Angel has plenty of daft moments; enough to make it pretty clear that he does incredibly stupid things and makes mistakes and sulks and is petty sometimes, just like everyone else.
I like him for that (heroes who are perfect are boring as shit). I like the fact that, like his evil counterpart, he's an idol with feet of clay; but in Angel's case of course, that makes him a person with whom you can laugh and sympathise, whereas with Angelus it just makes you think: "Hmm, evil geniuses are very overrated."