The Theme of Forgiveness in Whedonland
POSTED BY: dietcoke
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 08:38
VIEWED: 3872
PAGE 2 of 2
I would describe it more as redemption -- these characters have to *earn* their friends' (and the viewer's!) forgiveness.
Jayne, your mouth is talkin. Might want to look into that.
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SHINY! I just got the signature under your name. I bought Wonderfalls last night, and when I heard William Sadler say that last night, I couldn't stop laughing. My wife rolled her eyes when I told her where I'd seen it before!
Kaylee: "What's so damn important about being proper? It don't mean nothing out here in the black."
Simon: "It means more out here. It's all I have..."
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Yeah, I love that quote, especially since I'm a geek and "parse" has a specific meaning in computer science...
Jayne, your mouth is talkin. Might want to look into that.
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Angel...now redemption's his catchword!
Liam gets bitten one night in Galway, Ireland, and starting with a gravedigger, begins his massacre of the whole village, ending with his father. That's not enough for our darling boy, though, is it? He tears through half the known world, killing indiscriminately and referring to himself later as the biggest mass murderer Gunn has ever met.
Of course, he has a soul shoved in him, making him a contradiction among vampires. He took genuine pleasure (or rather, the demon that inhabited his body) in killing, torturing and maiming whole countries until his conscience is restored. What we know of Liam is that he wasn't a bad guy when we first meet him. Sure, he's got an overbearing father, and he's a shiftless layabout who would rather drink and whore than work, but not an evil man at all. For 150 years after becoming a vampire, he kills hundreds, if not thousands of people. His soul restored, he begins to feel the pain that a good person at finding out something truly horrible that they've done. Afterwards, he carries out a strange existence, reteaming with Darla and killing only evildoers. This doesn't sit well with Darla, and she tries to get him to sup on a baby...which he rescues. Eventually, he comes to America, where one would presume he stops feeding on humans altogether. He drinks human blood through 1952, as we are shown, and once, in the 70's, feeds on a dead diner worker. This fills him with such guilt that he begins to feed on rats and live in the gutters. He becomes completely detached from humanity until sometime in 1995 where, a balancing demon named Whistler shows up, takes him to California, and shows him a beautiful Slayer named Buffy. Angel decides to learn from Whistler and rejoins humanity with some nifty clothes and new mission to assist the Slayer.
His curse actually works against him, one of its parameters being if he feels perfect happiness (As in an orgasm with the woman he loves) then his soul is released again, and he becomes Angelus, scource to good. He kills indisciminately again, and feels no remorse for it. Until Willow works her first real spell and restores his soul yet again. Just in time for him to be sent to hell. Since we know that hell dimensions time works different from ours, he postulates that he may have been there a hundred years or more, but is returned for reasons he can't fathom. With Buffy's help, he regains his lost humanity, and begins his mission anew. Since he can't see a future with Buffy, and wants her to find happiness (even if its not with him) he leaves, to continue hs mission in LA.
Angel works all the harder as protector of the people from evil while in LA. And, for the most part, is quite successful. Will he ever find the redemption he so deperately wants...We don't know...The show ended before we got to that point. All signs point to yes, more than likely, as he has given more and more of himself to the greater good...He's given some of his friends along the way, but, hey...greater good.
So, will he ever find redemption. My answer is probably not. I don't think he will ever be able to balance the scales. I don't think he's meant to. Hey, I'm rooting for the guy, but look at all the bad he did as Angelus. All the stuff Angelus did that Angel can never put right.
Anyway...two very long cents on Angel/Angelus...sorry for the nonbrevity.
Kaylee: "What's so damn important about being proper? It don't mean nothing out here in the black."
Simon: "It means more out here. It's all I have..."
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Here's a question:
If Whedon is an atheist why does he use Christian concepts as main themes: forgiveness, redemption and salvation?
Also, Spike's soul is good. Liam was essentially a waste of humanity and it makes little difference whether Angel has his soul or not - in my view Angel is rotten to the core and only just manages to stay on the grey side of white sometimes - even when working for the greater good he is rotten (S5 Angel is testimony to that).
Spike, however was a lovely human and it makes sense that as a vampire with a soul he should also be lovely - hence the difference between Spike pre and post S6 and the need for forgiveness and his total redemption (unlike the Angel character).
I really should get me a signature
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