I'm more interested in patterns - such as the use of physical torture to examine Spike's character as opposed to psychological torture.
Excellent points, especially the categorising of chaotic and orderly evil, and how that relates to how the vamps are getting their character development.
Funny, I just read a The Sentinel fanfic in which the author said something very insightful. (If I can find it again, I'll link to it.) Basically, Jim, a police officer, is recovering from a knife wound. He keeps trying to get better by trying harder, pushing his body to feel better by exercising, straining himself. Obviously he doesn't get better. His doctor points out, generalising, that there are two types of people: people who live in their heads, and people who live in their bodies. I live in my head; my imagination and thought processes can amuse me for days, even weeks on end. Spike lives in his body. He experiences the world through his physical interaction. He fights, he fucks, he stalks around the room when impatient, he moves, he runs, he sprawls, he takes up space.
He needs the physicality of his body being damaged to move out of what-he-knew-before into the what-he-knows-now. Sorry I can't explain any better than that! The physical damage is a catalyst to his change and growth as a souled person.
Angel, at his most human, is a lot more physical. It's when he's doing his Beige!Angel or Angelus routine that he gets really, really scary-intelligent. Not saying he has a split personality or whatever. Only that Angel has to be in a not-human frame of mind to draw on certain aspects of himself.
How they go about finding Dana - emphasizes these two very different takes as well.
Angel reminds me a lot of Giles and Wesley here. He's doing the research, he's getting the intel. He's developing a strategy. But still, despite W&H's superior resources, he kinda wishes he was out on the streets the way Spike is, just going after the girl. Maybe he believes Spike's way is better in the long run? Maybe he's just tired of sitting in the office? Maybe both!
And Spike using his vamp senses, walking the streets and getting his hands dirty -- this was Angel not so long ago. This was Angel before he put on that suit and got handed the keys to a bunch of fancy cars. This, perhaps, is what Angel needs to get back to, if he wants to do real good.
But yet... is the W&H technology all that bad? Technology itself isn't evil, right? It's all in how you use it. W&H technology and medicine gave Lindsey an evil hand. W&H technology and medicine is working to wake Cordelia from her coma. W&H technology and medicine gives Spike back his arms. And wasn't the old Watchers Council a lot like W&H, except with tweed and moral high ground? Institutions can get mired down, corrupted, but does they have to be? Is it inevitable that big organisations will be ineffectual and morally bankrupt? Don't have answers yet...
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
Part 2
Date: 2004-01-29 12:01 pm (UTC)Excellent points, especially the categorising of chaotic and orderly evil, and how that relates to how the vamps are getting their character development.
Funny, I just read a The Sentinel fanfic in which the author said something very insightful. (If I can find it again, I'll link to it.) Basically, Jim, a police officer, is recovering from a knife wound. He keeps trying to get better by trying harder, pushing his body to feel better by exercising, straining himself. Obviously he doesn't get better. His doctor points out, generalising, that there are two types of people: people who live in their heads, and people who live in their bodies. I live in my head; my imagination and thought processes can amuse me for days, even weeks on end. Spike lives in his body. He experiences the world through his physical interaction. He fights, he fucks, he stalks around the room when impatient, he moves, he runs, he sprawls, he takes up space.
He needs the physicality of his body being damaged to move out of what-he-knew-before into the what-he-knows-now. Sorry I can't explain any better than that! The physical damage is a catalyst to his change and growth as a souled person.
Angel, at his most human, is a lot more physical. It's when he's doing his Beige!Angel or Angelus routine that he gets really, really scary-intelligent. Not saying he has a split personality or whatever. Only that Angel has to be in a not-human frame of mind to draw on certain aspects of himself.
How they go about finding Dana - emphasizes these two very different takes as well.
Angel reminds me a lot of Giles and Wesley here. He's doing the research, he's getting the intel. He's developing a strategy. But still, despite W&H's superior resources, he kinda wishes he was out on the streets the way Spike is, just going after the girl. Maybe he believes Spike's way is better in the long run? Maybe he's just tired of sitting in the office? Maybe both!
And Spike using his vamp senses, walking the streets and getting his hands dirty -- this was Angel not so long ago. This was Angel before he put on that suit and got handed the keys to a bunch of fancy cars. This, perhaps, is what Angel needs to get back to, if he wants to do real good.
But yet... is the W&H technology all that bad? Technology itself isn't evil, right? It's all in how you use it. W&H technology and medicine gave Lindsey an evil hand. W&H technology and medicine is working to wake Cordelia from her coma. W&H technology and medicine gives Spike back his arms. And wasn't the old Watchers Council a lot like W&H, except with tweed and moral high ground? Institutions can get mired down, corrupted, but does they have to be? Is it inevitable that big organisations will be ineffectual and morally bankrupt? Don't have answers yet...