Part of the way I read "Becoming" also comes down to how real, or not-real, Angel is as a person. Angel is a vampire. He's already dead. He doesn't cast reflection. And indeed, if you look at seasons one and two, we don't get much of a sense of Angel's inner life -- perhaps because, for all intents and purposes, he doesn't have one. Out-of-story, Angel is made up of fantasy tropes, of Buffy's fantasy, in order to do the horror tale that they tell in season two.
I agree and hadn't really thought of it that way before. But I think part of what the writers were doing with the Buffy/Angel story is examining those romantic fantasy tropes. They set them up like carefully placed dominoes..and slowly struck each one down, examining the flaws. The whole Beauty and the Beast fantasy trope is spun on its ear - she sleeps with "Angel" and he turns into a Beast. Her love seemingly turns him into a monster. Because he can't accept her love - her hope. It gets sucked into an abyss. He's not a person so much as an ideal - whatever she needs him to be. He has no self. So when they make love - share their real selves, expose their real selves - who should emerge? Angelus. Free from the curse. Almost as if the cursed self is the false self or false trope, the sugar coating. While beneath is the monster..?
Angel is the tortured soul - another fantasy trope, but Buffy can't save him. Angel can't do it himself. He's always a hair-line away. And you can't help but wonder if he wants to be saved?
The creators of both series - clearly studied these tropes in horror films and films - and felt the need to deconstruct them. I think it's the deconstruction of the tropes - that partly attracted me to the series. Particularly what they did with Angel. I was admittedly not that invested in the series...oh I liked it okay, but no more than anything else - until Innocence when Angel flipped and how he flipped. That surprised me. Suddenly the series became about something else. And it became clear that Buffy/Angel was not meant to be a positive romantic relationship. The writers were taking a hammer to the star-crossed lover trope in more ways than one.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2014-10-11 09:18 pm (UTC)Part of the way I read "Becoming" also comes down to how real, or not-real, Angel is as a person. Angel is a vampire. He's already dead. He doesn't cast reflection. And indeed, if you look at seasons one and two, we don't get much of a sense of Angel's inner life -- perhaps because, for all intents and purposes, he doesn't have one. Out-of-story, Angel is made up of fantasy tropes, of Buffy's fantasy, in order to do the horror tale that they tell in season two.
I agree and hadn't really thought of it that way before. But I think part of what the writers were doing with the Buffy/Angel story is examining those romantic fantasy tropes. They set them up like carefully placed dominoes..and slowly struck each one down, examining the flaws. The whole Beauty and the Beast fantasy trope is spun on its ear - she sleeps with "Angel" and he turns into a Beast. Her love seemingly turns him into a monster. Because he can't accept her love - her hope. It gets sucked into an abyss. He's not a person so much as an ideal - whatever she needs him to be. He has no self. So when they make love - share their real selves, expose their real selves - who should emerge? Angelus. Free from the curse. Almost as if the cursed self is the false self or false trope, the sugar coating. While beneath is the monster..?
Angel is the tortured soul - another fantasy trope, but Buffy can't save him.
Angel can't do it himself. He's always a hair-line away. And you can't help but wonder if he wants to be saved?
The creators of both series - clearly studied these tropes in horror films and films - and felt the need to deconstruct them. I think it's the deconstruction of the tropes - that partly attracted me to the series. Particularly what they did with Angel. I was admittedly not that invested in the series...oh I liked it okay, but no more than anything else - until Innocence when Angel flipped and how he flipped. That surprised me. Suddenly the series became about something else. And it became clear that Buffy/Angel was not meant to be a positive romantic relationship. The writers were taking a hammer to the star-crossed lover trope in more ways than one.