Connor's willingness to forgive Angel as readily as he does bothered me with Origin on a first viewing, but ultimately it makes a certain amount of sense. And while I think the mindwipe of Connor was a bad idea, and ultimately a kind of frightening one -- erasing who Connor is to make a better one in his place! -- I also will give Angel this: I think that, in "Home," Angel did what he thought was the best he could do for Connor. It's really not what I think would be best for him. But I think it makes sense with Angel's worldview, and view of himself. It is still a betrayal of the world and his friends, and it's still even bad to Connor -- but I think Connor is ultimately right to recognize that Angel did what he thought was right by him (by Connor).
I think Wesley remembers something about Lilah -- he tells Cordelia, "You didn't kill Lilah," in "You're Welcome." But he does seem to have been somewhat reset in his attitude toward Fred. I think it may be that he remembers something of what happened with Lilah, but not the intensity and the reason for it -- because it's unlikely he would have ended up with Lilah if he were not ejected from Angel's team. It's a fuzzy part of the text, but it sort of makes sense on a Watsonian level, which intersects with the Doylist one. Angel erases Connor, and that causes problems for everyone's memory -- but the mindwipe / the writer's fiat about keeping Connor and related events backgrounded prevents the characters from remembering exactly what was going on.
I think it's noteworthy that even if Wes, Fred et al. decided to join W&H, they might still have balked at it once they realized that Angel, their boss, did it for reasons having nothing to do with wanting to do good, and didn't really want to be there.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2014-10-14 01:34 am (UTC)Connor's willingness to forgive Angel as readily as he does bothered me with Origin on a first viewing, but ultimately it makes a certain amount of sense. And while I think the mindwipe of Connor was a bad idea, and ultimately a kind of frightening one -- erasing who Connor is to make a better one in his place! -- I also will give Angel this: I think that, in "Home," Angel did what he thought was the best he could do for Connor. It's really not what I think would be best for him. But I think it makes sense with Angel's worldview, and view of himself. It is still a betrayal of the world and his friends, and it's still even bad to Connor -- but I think Connor is ultimately right to recognize that Angel did what he thought was right by him (by Connor).
I think Wesley remembers something about Lilah -- he tells Cordelia, "You didn't kill Lilah," in "You're Welcome." But he does seem to have been somewhat reset in his attitude toward Fred. I think it may be that he remembers something of what happened with Lilah, but not the intensity and the reason for it -- because it's unlikely he would have ended up with Lilah if he were not ejected from Angel's team. It's a fuzzy part of the text, but it sort of makes sense on a Watsonian level, which intersects with the Doylist one. Angel erases Connor, and that causes problems for everyone's memory -- but the mindwipe / the writer's fiat about keeping Connor and related events backgrounded prevents the characters from remembering exactly what was going on.
I think it's noteworthy that even if Wes, Fred et al. decided to join W&H, they might still have balked at it once they realized that Angel, their boss, did it for reasons having nothing to do with wanting to do good, and didn't really want to be there.