I suppose it's because Connor was the actual focus of the mind-wipe, the one it's supposed to help (at every one else's extent), so he's fine and everyone else falls apart. I wanted there to be MAJOR fall out between Angel and his friends after "Origin" and there never was.
Of course, I didn't buy that the mindwipe could just make Connor naturally better, no reprecussions from getting his old memories back. They fudged this by saying his old memories felt more distant than the new, false ones.
What I did in TD was have the old memories gradually build in strength until Connor kind of went nutso and had to deal with them the hard way - by working through them. I also expanded on canon a little by saying that the mindwipe was actually a form of "mystical therapy" utilized by a client of Wolfram and Hart in which traumatized individuals had their memories erased and replaced with healthy memories. They and their families would live that way for a year or two, then get their memories back, and it was like therapy in that the new memories taught them the coping skills and emotional levelness psychotherapy normally would. I wrote it that Angel co-opted this in cahoots with Lilah in "Home", intending that Connor and the Reillys would never get their memories back, ever.
I don't think Angel thought that taking away the memory of Connor could possibly have the kind of reprecussions it did on his friends' lives. I think he maybe even thought he was doing them a favor, given that the last couple years sucked in so many ways. Which is totally an in-character paternalistic disenfranchisement Angel would do with the best of intentions to help his son.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-03-22 04:08 pm (UTC)Of course, I didn't buy that the mindwipe could just make Connor naturally better, no reprecussions from getting his old memories back. They fudged this by saying his old memories felt more distant than the new, false ones.
What I did in TD was have the old memories gradually build in strength until Connor kind of went nutso and had to deal with them the hard way - by working through them. I also expanded on canon a little by saying that the mindwipe was actually a form of "mystical therapy" utilized by a client of Wolfram and Hart in which traumatized individuals had their memories erased and replaced with healthy memories. They and their families would live that way for a year or two, then get their memories back, and it was like therapy in that the new memories taught them the coping skills and emotional levelness psychotherapy normally would. I wrote it that Angel co-opted this in cahoots with Lilah in "Home", intending that Connor and the Reillys would never get their memories back, ever.
I don't think Angel thought that taking away the memory of Connor could possibly have the kind of reprecussions it did on his friends' lives. I think he maybe even thought he was doing them a favor, given that the last couple years sucked in so many ways. Which is totally an in-character paternalistic disenfranchisement Angel would do with the best of intentions to help his son.