Angel-verse Thinky Thoughts
Oct. 7th, 2006 12:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedibuttercupMy life would be a lot nicer right now if I could breathe. But at least the fever-chills and the worst of the sore throat and aches are gone. I still feel miserable, but it's a step up from yesterday: huddling on the couch with a blanket and a cuppa and a box of kleenex, shivering my way through the back half of Angel Season 3 because I couldn't think straight enough to actually write.
I hope to still finish my Wesley crossover ficathon story today; if not, I should finish it tomorrow. In the meanwhile, however, I had some possibly interesting thoughts in response to my re-viewing.
The Groosalug's Role in Wesley's Downfall
I used to think the Groosalug was a victim of Cordelia's attempts to divert her feelings for Angel onto someone safer, and that everyone would have been much better off had she actually, y'know, stayed with him instead of closing him out and then running off to meet Angel and getting sucked into that pseudo-Ascension. He was so sweet and so noble, and all "Hail to you, potential client!" But I think I'm beginning to change my opinion on him.
It's no secret that Angel's not my favorite character, either on his own show or Buffy's, and that I think any attempt to pair him off while the curse is still operational is ultimately doomed. But seriously. If Cordelia had taken up with Angel after the opera-- if she'd owned her own feelings and gone looking for a mystical potion to prevent the loss of Angel's soul instead of one to prevent her from losing her visions (as clichéd as I think that idea is)-- then the rest of the field of dominoes may not have tipped despite Skip's early intervention in turning Cordelia part-demon.
(Clearly, the demonic traits were meant to grease her entry into the "higher" dimension Skip took her to at the end of the season, so that she could be infected and returned to Earth as Jasmine's vehicle to power. But we saw her demonic gifts themselves in operation more than once during the season, and they were clearly not intrisically "evil". More of the scrubbing bubbles and threat-negating variety, not to mention the floatiness. So it isn't necessarily true that she would've had to let the back of her head explode in order to avert the disastrous future to come).
No, it's all Groo's fault. I'm convinced now that he was sent in to distract Cordelia, whether wittingly or not, and keep her from noticing her best friend's preoccupation or mitigating the fallout after the kidnap. Think about it. How did he get out of Pylea in the first place? When Our Heroes did so at the end of Season 2, it was by using Fred's knowledge and the books kept by the Wolf, Ram and Hart priests. Groo isn't exactly what you'd call a brain-- he probably wasn't educated beyond what it would to take for him to perform his role as champion, given that his own race saw him as an inferior being in all respects save his prowess at killing monsters-- so I highly doubt he was able to get himself out. And given who kept the books... suspicious, much?
The woman to whom Wesley bared his heart about his crush on Fred, and who conspiratorily told him "the iron is hot" with obvious glee at what she believed to be Wesley's impending happiness, would never. Ever. have ignored or marginalised Wesley's increasing distress the way the besotted Gunn and Fred did. Nor would she have rejected him so 100% thoroughly in Angel's favor after the kidnap, repressed crush on the vampire or no. I can tell you exactly when my love-love-love for Cordelia on that show evaporated and blew away: it was when Fred asked her to talk to Angel about Wesley, and the words "Angel's feelings are the only ones I care about" came out of Cordelia's mouth.
I haven't read much Angel-verse meta recently, so I'm probably just retreading what others have discussed before, but as a former Groo fan rewatching Season 3 for the Wesley highlights, I was unhappy to be reminded how very convenient Groo's sudden appearance was, in many, many respects. Maybe it was more than convenient: maybe it was malicious!
Holtz and Wolfram & Hart were all tangled up with the prophecies and the attempts on Angel's baby, over a long period of time; I think it reasonable enough to posit their involvement in bringing Groo in to flip Cordelia, disturb Angel, and make Wesley more vulnerable. Holtz was out of the picture soon enough, being chiefly concerned with revenge, but W&H is always interested in the long haul, and one of the many effects of the fall-out of the Connor situation was a singled-out Wesley, and of course Lilah wasted no time pouncing on him as soon as he was home from the hospital. Might that have been part of the intent from the beginning?
So there you have it: I am now someone who dislikes the Groosalug... not on Angel's behalf, but on Wesley's.
*baring teeth*
~
I hope to still finish my Wesley crossover ficathon story today; if not, I should finish it tomorrow. In the meanwhile, however, I had some possibly interesting thoughts in response to my re-viewing.
The Groosalug's Role in Wesley's Downfall
I used to think the Groosalug was a victim of Cordelia's attempts to divert her feelings for Angel onto someone safer, and that everyone would have been much better off had she actually, y'know, stayed with him instead of closing him out and then running off to meet Angel and getting sucked into that pseudo-Ascension. He was so sweet and so noble, and all "Hail to you, potential client!" But I think I'm beginning to change my opinion on him.
It's no secret that Angel's not my favorite character, either on his own show or Buffy's, and that I think any attempt to pair him off while the curse is still operational is ultimately doomed. But seriously. If Cordelia had taken up with Angel after the opera-- if she'd owned her own feelings and gone looking for a mystical potion to prevent the loss of Angel's soul instead of one to prevent her from losing her visions (as clichéd as I think that idea is)-- then the rest of the field of dominoes may not have tipped despite Skip's early intervention in turning Cordelia part-demon.
(Clearly, the demonic traits were meant to grease her entry into the "higher" dimension Skip took her to at the end of the season, so that she could be infected and returned to Earth as Jasmine's vehicle to power. But we saw her demonic gifts themselves in operation more than once during the season, and they were clearly not intrisically "evil". More of the scrubbing bubbles and threat-negating variety, not to mention the floatiness. So it isn't necessarily true that she would've had to let the back of her head explode in order to avert the disastrous future to come).
No, it's all Groo's fault. I'm convinced now that he was sent in to distract Cordelia, whether wittingly or not, and keep her from noticing her best friend's preoccupation or mitigating the fallout after the kidnap. Think about it. How did he get out of Pylea in the first place? When Our Heroes did so at the end of Season 2, it was by using Fred's knowledge and the books kept by the Wolf, Ram and Hart priests. Groo isn't exactly what you'd call a brain-- he probably wasn't educated beyond what it would to take for him to perform his role as champion, given that his own race saw him as an inferior being in all respects save his prowess at killing monsters-- so I highly doubt he was able to get himself out. And given who kept the books... suspicious, much?
The woman to whom Wesley bared his heart about his crush on Fred, and who conspiratorily told him "the iron is hot" with obvious glee at what she believed to be Wesley's impending happiness, would never. Ever. have ignored or marginalised Wesley's increasing distress the way the besotted Gunn and Fred did. Nor would she have rejected him so 100% thoroughly in Angel's favor after the kidnap, repressed crush on the vampire or no. I can tell you exactly when my love-love-love for Cordelia on that show evaporated and blew away: it was when Fred asked her to talk to Angel about Wesley, and the words "Angel's feelings are the only ones I care about" came out of Cordelia's mouth.
I haven't read much Angel-verse meta recently, so I'm probably just retreading what others have discussed before, but as a former Groo fan rewatching Season 3 for the Wesley highlights, I was unhappy to be reminded how very convenient Groo's sudden appearance was, in many, many respects. Maybe it was more than convenient: maybe it was malicious!
Holtz and Wolfram & Hart were all tangled up with the prophecies and the attempts on Angel's baby, over a long period of time; I think it reasonable enough to posit their involvement in bringing Groo in to flip Cordelia, disturb Angel, and make Wesley more vulnerable. Holtz was out of the picture soon enough, being chiefly concerned with revenge, but W&H is always interested in the long haul, and one of the many effects of the fall-out of the Connor situation was a singled-out Wesley, and of course Lilah wasted no time pouncing on him as soon as he was home from the hospital. Might that have been part of the intent from the beginning?
So there you have it: I am now someone who dislikes the Groosalug... not on Angel's behalf, but on Wesley's.
*baring teeth*
~
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-10-07 10:46 pm (UTC)It was also season 3 and how flawed yet good thinking Wesley was and then got pushed out completely that made him my fav character of Angel. I think I even was okay with his death if only because it meant I had the ending of things for him.