solitary_summer | (no subject) (Reply)

Finished S4 yesterday, meaning I can now at least temporary un-glue myself from the tv until sometime in May when S5 is released. ~~Provided, that is, I can stifle the rather persistent urge to re-watch every single Wesley episode...~~

So maybe it's occasionally flawed and the characters are occasionally a little irritating, and I still feel like I've been dumped into a different show sometime mid-S3, when suddenly it's all pain, angst & apocalypse and hardly any laughter anymore, but despite all that I'm in deep fanish love. I think I'd have preferred if they'd allowed a little more time for characters and events to unfold, because since mid-S3 for me everything seemed a little too fast-paced, some episodes a little over-freighted, characters forced to to adjust to story-lines too quickly, but S4 especially has some terrific story-telling with things falling into place, and I did mention the glued-to-the-screen thing? If it's flawed it's because it's over-ambitious, and this is rare enough on tv these days.

# Angel: Difficult. Angel (like Buffy) is not an easy character to like, at least not for me. The first time I fell in.... interest with his character was in S3 Buffy Amends when Angel admits that it isn't the demon in him that needs killing, but the man. This ambiguity, when suddenly it isn't any longer about curses and demons, soul or no soul, makes Angel's struggle a more generally human thing, something one can relate to: there's Angel and Angelus, and there's the demon and the man, but the Angelus part and the demon part of his personality aren't identical; there's a good part of Liam in Angelus, and a streak of Angelus in Angel. I don't like Angel, but I keep coming back to him.

# Cordelia: Oh, sigh. Her turning out to be possessed by evil forces was actually a relief, because at least it explained the slow de-construction of her character during S4. I actually used to like her, until she lost me sometime S3 with her growing obsession about Angel. Birthday was touching, but the subsequent mixture of growing romance and fixture on Angel ('Angel's feelings are the only ones I care about') and increasing saintliness was less than appealing. S4 she mostly annoyed me except for a short moment when Cordelia/Connor seemed a possibility - a non-evil possibility, that is. I found her sleeping with Connor a sweet thing to do (not so much the 'it was only a pre-apocalypse pity fuck, and I still love Angel' morning after part) and for as long as it lasted I liked it & thought it might have been different and interesting, and actually slightly more reasonable than the Cordelia/Angel thing, because personally I could never see Cordy actually go for the all angst, no sex type of relationship.

# Fred: Doesn't really interest me. Evil suits her even less than sweet & geeky.

# Gunn: That Old Gang of Mine was the last truly fascinating episode, after that I kind of lost interest in his character, what with the Fred romance, the rivalry with Wesley over her and his couldn't-care-less attitude about what happened to Wesley. However, I'm rather intrigued by what happened with him during the S4 finale and where they'll be going with his character in S5.

# Lorne: Liked him better when he still had a life of his own.

# Connor: Not sure what to think. Looked like a slightly deranged Harry Potter in S3. Had his moments, especially towards the end, when it transpired that he stayed with Jasmine even knowing what she really was, or at least how she really looked like. Still annoying. Too much teenage angst of the grew-up-in-a-hell-dimension variety, I guess...

# Wesley. Oh Wesley. Again, not an immediately likable character, neither his earlier incarnation, swerving rather wildly between insecurity and arrogance, nor the dark, hurt S4 persona, who fucks Lilah for some minimum contact and human closeness while keeping Justine bound and gagged in the closet, only to be allowed out to help him search for Angel.

But perhaps this is why he and Angel connect so well; they're very much alike. The awareness has always been lingering there, I think... From S1 where Wesley stumbles in dressed like Angel, to his S4 descent into darkness which mirrors Angel's S2 anger and despair. Wesley knows - really knows - Angel in a way none of the others (with the possible exception of Buffy) do, because as a former watcher he doesn't have the luxury to harbour any illusions about Angel's darker side, whereas Cordelia and Gunn try compartimentalise and ignore the Angelus part as much as possible. And it's mutual - Angel understands Wesley's darkness, maybe recognised the potential earlier than Wesley did, and perhaps it's seeing himself in Wesley which makes him forgive him before any of the others do; he accepts his ~~relationship~~ with Lilah, which horrifies Fred.

Their S4 arc is amazing, the slow rebuilding of their friendship, from Deep Down where Wesley, who cannot know that the 'I should have killed you' is directed at Angel's vision of Connor rather than himself, cuts his arm and feeds Angel like it's a privilege and redemption and the most natural thing in the world. Rain of Fire when Angel throws the crossbow ('You in?') to Wesley like old times; Cavalry, and JW's recent comment about Angel and Spike throws a different light on the 'if I swung that way' part... ; Players and Inside Out where Angel is genuinely sorry, if not exactly for Lilah's death, then about the fact that it hurt Wesley. Coming from someone as self-involved as Angel usually is, whose concern for other people tends to revolve about how they and their fate affects himself, that means a lot. Magic Bullet where Wesley can actually half-joke about Connor's kidnapping ('I’ll get him. I’ve kidnapped him before.').

By the end of S4 they have this relationship based on an equal mutual need that has gone beyond all niceties, beyond friendship, beyond love, beyond trust; has survived betrayal and attempted murder, and they're still not sparing each other anything (like Wesley insisting on bringing Angelus back, knowing how much it will hurt Angel, and possibly himself) if it's necessary to win the fight.

Is it a sign of my messed up psyche that I'm so falling for that kind of thing every time? It's not so much about the slashy angle (although there is plenty of subtext), it's about... connection, and acceptance.

Also finished Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange ad Mr. Norell, which made a curiously satisfying read, considering the fact that at no point I was really emotionally invested in any of the characters. But it's always a pleasure to read a well-constructed story and I did find it compelling and occasionally touching, the world-building was convincing and despite the rather detached, Austen-esque style the inclusion of magic felt genuine - genuinely magic, more so perhaps than the Potter-verse. The ending was perfect and true to character, anything else would have spoiled the book.