#angel the series meta

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

I really want the show to go into more detail about Husk's backstory as an overlord, partly because I feel like it's something the fandom is kinda glossing over and partly because it's lowkey one of the biggest obstacles that a Husk/Angel relationship would have into overcome.

'Loser Baby' emphasises the similarities between Angel and Husk's situations, but it also (probably deliberately, since Husk is the one leading it) brushes aside one of the most major differences between them.

Namely that when Husk tells Angel that he's not the only one who sold his soul, he's not just singing about himself.

Husk sold his soul to Alastor, yeah (or lost it at least, which amounts to the same thing), but he also traded in souls. He was that “psychopathic freak”, and was operating fro long enough to achieve Overlord status.

And, honestly? Having your soul owned by Husker back in the day probably sucked.

The one benefit of soul contracts for the person selling their soul is that they seem to get a fair amount of say in how the contract is written.

Angel's contract, for example, apparently has a clause stating that he's only under Valentino's jurisdiction when he's in the studio. (Which, btw, puts a whole other spin on why Val is so pissed when he moves out of studio accommodation and into the Hotel.) And Val is apparently bound to that. Even though he's pissed off and actively wants to put Angel in his place, he can't make any moves against him in the club.

Equally, since most overlords seem to be associated with a specific location/industry, you can generally choose who your working for and therefore roughly what kind of stuff you're gonna be doing.

In practice there seems to be a lot of manipulation and coercion going on on the part of the Overlords making these contracts— they're not fair by any means— but the sinners signing them are theoretically at least guaranteed the right to a (somewhat) informed choice and some control over the deals they make.

Having an Overlord who uses human souls to pay his gambling debts, however, completely undermines all that.

Imagine going into work for your job running the roulette games at the casino only to be told that the boss played a bad hand in a game with Valentino, and so you're a sex worker now.

Or being traded to someone who has you fighting turf wars for them, and realising that your contract doesn't have any clauses to protect your personal safety because you only signed up to be a bartender.

Or selling your soul for a job near your home and family so you can guarantee their protection, only to be traded to someone whose territory is on the other side of the pentagram.

Husk is a victim of his own addiction, yeah, which is one of the reasons why Angel relates to him. But his backstory implies that there must be a significant number of people out there who were also victims of Husk's addiction, and may not be as sympathetic. Dude basically owned other people as property (… we have a word for that) and then literally played games with their lives.

And like, I'm not saying he hasn't changed. He seems more empathetic on the show than his backstory would imply, and apart from anything else, he's had a pretty clear object lesson about what it's like to be on the receiving end of that sort of thing. (Ngl, I'm pretty sure one of the reasons Alastor keeps him around is because he's the type to find the irony amusing.)

But like, he's in this place where he can relate to Angel Dust's situation, while at the same time probably also being able to relate to Valentino and Alastor's perspectives (although I doubt he was quite as bad as Val to work for).

And I'm curious as to what would happen, later in the series, if the gang met someone who had sold their soul to Husk at one point. Someone who would also be able to relate to Angel's situation, but with Husk as their version of Valentino.

#hazbin hotel #angel dust #husker #huskerdust #meta #hazbin hotel meta #yeah i just got thru watching this series and I have Thoughts #alastor hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel headcanons #valentino #hazbin hotel spoilers

[genericaces]

here is actually my most important contribution to an alternate s5

#no thoughts or meta on how it would affect their character arcs i just think it would be fun #angel the series #ats #spangel #spike #angel #art

[omegalomania]

i think what i admire most about this record after sitting with it for a full day is the marriage of its musicality and its lyricism.

lyrically..."nihilistic" is a really good way of putting it. i was honestly kind of floored by how goddamn bleak so much of the lyricism on this record is. there's so much desolation, so much hopelessness, so much struggling to find meaning in meaninglessness. lyrically, i think this might be some of pete's darkest but also some of his best work. there's so much grappling with the feeling that maybe it's all pointless. maybe none of it fucking gets better. maybe you're always going to be fighting to figure out some kind of sense and feeling displaced and the further you look toward the horizon, the more the inevitability of the end scares the living shit out of you.

so much (for) stardust is utterly desolate lyrically. even little granules of hope feel tongue-in-cheek or in denial. so...what? does anything ever get better? are we all just flailing around, trying to make our stupid lives make sense? but at the same time, fall out boy are the happiest they've ever been as a band. they waited five years so they could savor making this record and they were genuinely excited to share it with all of us. pete is wearing skirts and letting his hair down and they're playing songs that once got them booed off stage with fearless love in their eyes and they're looking after each others' mental health and supporting one another through it all. what does it mean for a band to release something this somber at this point in time for them?

the "reality bites" pink seashell speech sums it all up kind of perfectly. so maybe life is inherently meaningless, but at the same time...there's good food. there's beautiful weather. there are still good movies, and the sound of rain on the windows, and hope, and friendship, and joy. maybe there's no point. but that doesn't change that there's still laughter. there's still love.

and that's what's in the sound of this record. the big, cinematic swell of an orchestra. the upbeat chirps of a synth. the screeching of a guitar and some bouncy, catchy goddamn riffs that'll live under your skin for days. this is a record you dance to and cry to. (cry a little, cry a lot, but don't stop dancing, don't dare stop.) sonically, this is a record laden with grit and delight and a powerful sense of purpose, from catchy pop hooks to roaring, cinematic anthems. it sits in delicious contrast to the words but it doesn't undermine them. it complements them. happy music for sad people.

of course there's pain, and there's frustration, and the world is full of tragedy and hopelessness and maybe the worst part of it is that it doesn't go away once you grow up. as you get older, you don't ever magically learn how everything clicks together. you just have to fumble through it and hope for the best, even if it feels like it never gets any easier.

it's a hard lesson to learn. but you aren't alone in it. so what fates do we share? we're all stardust. we all share the same end. we are not alone in our fears and uncertainties and we will not be alone at the end either, not really. we came from stardust and to stardust we will return.

i think if there is a hope i can take away from this record it's like...this feeling that it doesn't get better, really. but you do get better at living with it, and to someone like me, that's vital. years ago i had to come to terms with the valuable, painful lesson that i will not, mentally, neurologically, ever get "better." there will never be a point where i am "cured" of all that i must live with. but i've grown better at living with it. and there are things out there that i'm living for anyway - good food, better friends, and maybe a long-anticipated record you need to put on replay for a good long while as you soak it in.

maybe none of this matters, in the end. but if it doesn't, then this is what matters. this.

"if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do."

#fall out boy #so much (for) stardust #*making poasts #*meta #expanding on some thoughts i was going on abt in the gc earlier #this is pretty freeform and it doesnt sum it all up for me but i tried my best #im allowed a little bit of sincerity from time to time #that parting quote is from angel the series. which is a show i have mixed feelings on but its an important quote to me so

[veinsfullofstars]

Follow your dreams, little guy.

(ID: Kirby series fanart comic, Childhood Friends AU, of young Meta Knight showing off a drawing he made of Galacta Knight, explaining how scary and mysterious he is, before confidently declaring his intent to one day find and fight him. Below that, a sketch comic of Meta standing stoically before his friends - Dedede, Para Dee, and Bow Dee - after giving this speech. Dedede and Para exchange a look of skepticism, while Bow clenches her fists, her eyes sparkling in determined admiration. Transcript under the cut. END ID.)

UPDATE 03/11/24: Added a scar to Meta's head.

Started on 10/17/23, finished on 10/19/23. NOTE: This was originally posted on my deleted account on 10/19/23.

---

Transcript:

Panel 1

Meta: *holding up drawing* This… is Galacta Knight. A hero from long, long, long ago and - supposedly - the Greatest Warrior in the Galaxy.

Panel 2

Meta: *pointing at drawing* Legends say… this his power was so great, to terrible… he nearly destroyed and entire civilization all by himself. Even grownups are too scared to talk about him.

Panel 3

Meta: *fist clenched, face determined* I’m gonna totally kick his butt one day.

Bonus sketch Panel 1

*Meta stands with stoic confidence before his friends, the backs of their heads just visible at the bottom of the frame (from left to right: Bow, Dedede, Para - the latter two bearing single drops of sweat to indicate their skepticism)

Bonus sketch Panel 2

*reverse shot of Meta’s friends sitting side by side (left to right: Para, Dedede, Bow), Dedede leans conspiratorially towards Para, who looks uncertain, while Bow stands with stars in her eyes, clearly inspired by MK’s words*

Dedede: *arms crossed, brow raised* Yeesh. And they say all my plans are half-baked.

#veins art #veins sketches #veins ocs #veins fanart #fanart #kirby series #kirby #meta knight #galacta knight #kind dedede #original character #oc #kirby oc #my ocs #para dee #bow dee #AU #childhood friends au #comic #meta gives his friends a powerpoint presentation on why he's gonna win agains a vengeful angel #does he actual do that in this universe? in his dreams maybe :) #at least Bow believes in him #Dedede does too (he's just trying to look cool) #veinsfullofstars

[thefiresofpompeii]

a lot of people talk about love don’t roam being about rose which, sure, obviously, the first time i heard it in the runaway bride and recognised the lyrics i cried, but what people don’t mention nearly often enough is that my angel put the devil in me is more than just a gag tune for tallulah’s showgirls to perform at the cabaret. it’s a song from the perspective of martha.

that’s essentially the plot of smith&jones. the little streetcar is the tardis

referring to the fact that ten kept promising martha ‘one last trip’ before he dropped her off. then another, and another. hey, it don’t have to be eternally, because he’s not the kind of guy to stick around…

davros’ admonishment in journey’s end: the doctor may be a pacifist who never carries a weapon, but he turns everybody around him into soldiers. martha’s no exception; she holds the osterhagen key. ten may be her guardian angel, but her traumatic experiences while travelling with him harden her spirit, and by s4 she’s working for UNIT. she was an ordinary medical student and he put the ‘devil’ of adventure in her, just like any other companion

now this one’s pretty self-evident. cold grey eyes and a simple smile. guile and charm and mystery. whisked her away like a witch on a broomstick. one and one and one: three hearts between the two of them. or maybe ‘three’ is martha, the doctor and the tardis. or — worse — martha, the doctor and rose.

the fact that the song is playing during this scene in the end of time also casts its meaning in a different light: jack has been radically transformed through meeting the doctor just like martha was. from a conman and a coward to an unlikely hero. jack shoulders the burden too. so many lives upended because of this bad bad angel. don’t make crowley jokes

#back on my murray gold bullshit #murray gold #love don’t roam #my angel put the devil in me #daleks in manhattan #evolution of the daleks #doctor who series 3 #doctor who #dw #martha jones #ten #tenth doctor #tenmartha #david tennant #freema agyeman #jack harkness #tenjack #the end of time #doctor who series 4 #journey’s end #doctor who meta

[thepunkmuppet]

I love love love robin, robin wood fan for life ofc ofc, but I genuinely think that faith should’ve hooked up with willow in season 7.

it just makes sense - the two of them understand each other now, having gone through similar experiences of doing terrible things with their power and wanting to atone. I think seeing them build a growing respect and attraction to each other, building to a passionate hookup that may or may not become a semi-healthy relationship… it just would’ve been very interesting to explore, especially with the characters’ complicated but definitely charged history together. ugh and the angst of willow losing tara only to then get it on with FAITH? FAITH??? regardless of how much faith has changed or how good their relationship is, you can’t tell me willow wouldn’t feel a little disgusted with herself, and that is some juicy stuff to dig into

also I just hate kennedy and NEED canon sapphic faith content because that woman is a raging bisexual and no one on this earth can convince me otherwise

and yeah obviously if anyone has any fic recs like this please drop them in the notes thaaaanks

#faith x willow #faith lehane #willow rosenberg #I’m literally turning to the dark side you guys #FAITH X WILLOW IS SO GOOD #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #ats #angel the series #buffyverse #btvs meta

[purgaytorysupremacy]

friend who is watching Supernatural because I won't shut up about it: I dunno, the episode "It's a Terrible Life" feels kind of empty and doesn't really make a lot of sense. Like, the message is just "ghost hunting is mad fun, bro"

me, buzzing with murder board energy: no, no, but you see... *writes hundreds of words about how this is one of THEE Dean Studies episodes, especially when paired with the season two djinn episode and endverse, and builds important parts of the angel's lore and plans, and is a meta example of the show's creators misunderstanding their own characters and stories*

#dean winchester #dean studies #dean smith #spn meta #spn #spn 4x17 #it's a terrible life #the good supernatural in my head #mine.txt #listen. someday I'm going to have the energy and brainspace to do my in-universe meta bullshit series thing and then it's all gonna be over #the wants-vs-needs of it all #the self-loathing of it all #the who-dean-would-be-without-john of it all #the misunderstanding-of-dean-by-everyone-including-himself-and-the-supernatural of it all #the doomed-man-walking-back-into-fate of it all #the machiavellian-nature-of-angels of it all #the unreliable-narrator-of-his-own-life of it all #this episode makes me insane #it's all right there if they'd decided to take just one tiny step into something more interesting than haha what a fucking fairy amirite #also ken doll dean smith are we kidding #adorable

[lyricthecat-12]

Asique, después de ver varios Icebergs de Webseries y que ninguno me terminara de convencer, decidí hacer mi propio Iceberg de Webseries animadas.

Trate de organizarlos de las más conocidas a día de hoy a las más de nicho, dejando en último nivel los casos de Webseries que terminaron destacando sólo por la polémica que les aconteció. Obviamente habra faltado alguna (por lo que no estaría de más que alguien lo comentará) pero intente hacerlo lo más completo posible.

En un futuro planeo explicarlo como es debido pero de momento, dejaré por aquí la plantilla.

#helluva boss #the amazing digital circus #murder drones #rwby #eddworld #web series #don't hug me i'm scared #huevocartoon #madness combat #metal family #bee and puppycat #vete a la versh #ena #mystery skulls #bravest warriors #how it should have ended #cyanide and happiness #meta runner #mikecrack #Battle for Angel Island #red vs blue #the land of boggs #sunset paradise #spooky month #salad fingers #hands up #FNAF hight School #the vampire series #Casually Explained #Santina

[transbutchbluess]

i don’t see many theories about the Angel/Messenger in the locked tomb. mine is pretty obvious since it is just that they have something to do with Cassiopeia the First. the Sixth House is on Mercury. Mercury is the Roman God of travelers, and the Sixth is the only House that moved. He is also the god of messengers and communication. Cassiopeia had left secret instructions to her house, which indicates that she had probably betrayed Jod. she might also have had some contact with Blood of Eden ? an Angel is a Messenger (of God) (but that wouldn’t make much sense here). and Lyctors are sort of Angels (companions of God, also the equivalent to the angels in the EAP’s poem Annabel Lee), so i think the Messenger has something to do with one of the Lyctors. i think some people said that the message might be something about preserving culture through oral tradition (since BOE also does that with names), and the Sixth is the House with the library, the archivists, the scholars, and psychometry.

if you have any theories about the Messenger (or about anything really) please share, i’m very interested

#tlt spoilers #tlt series #tlt analysis #tlt meta #tlt #the locked tomb #the locked tomb analysis #the locked tomb theories #sixth house #tlt cassiopeia #tlt angel #tlt messenger #gtn #htn #ntn

[doggirlbuffysummers]

On Charles Gunn and Community

A large part of why I want to write this meta is that I don’t really see many people talking about Gunn. This is not all my thoughts on Gunn, I am going to write more over time. I have stated before that I personally feel that Gunn is in fact a much more complicated character than many here give him credit for.

I posit that the reason for this lack of credit was a larger trend of people in the fandom accepting the narratives presented by white characters regarding the people of color in the show (this is probably more discussed about at this point regarding Spike and Nikki and Robin Wood). While this essay is not entirely about the racism present in the corpus of Angel the Series, it exists in dialogue with more in depth takes on the racism present in Ats.

Gunn is in many respects unique in the buffyverse. There are no other people of color who achieve the status of main cast member, and certainly not for four consecutive seasons. The lack of discussion regarding him is a huge indignity to his character.

Much more care is taken to fleshing out Gunn in season two than in other seasons. In season two Gunn has a life outside of Angel Investigations. He has roots in the city, a community that he has spent his life dedicated to protecting. In season three, after the events of “That Old Gang of Mine” (3x03), this critical aspect of his character is gone.

It would be inaccurate to say that this happens suddenly, but the way it is handled is different in season three. During most of season two, Gunn exists in two worlds, never fully belonging to either. Both the early stages of the Pylea arc and especially “That Old Gang of Mine” throw into sharp focus that the story the writers want to tell with him is that he cannot live in this state of dual existence. “That Old Gang of Mine” depicts the members of Gunn’s old community as violent and unenlightened, with Gunn being pulled in two highly racialized directions: “black” wanton violence, and “white” enlightened application of reason regarding the use of violence. The way the episode portrays people of color is just downright awful, and Ats’s larger portrayal of race actively upholds existing, current stereotypes surrounding people of color.

I would say that Gunn is someone who cares highly about community. Episodes like 1x20 “War Zone,” 2x03 “First Impressions,” and 2x14 “The Thin Dead Line” contrast Gunn heavily with the other three members of AI. Gunn doesn’t fight for some greater ideal like others, but because it helps protect the people around him, as highlighted by @titsgirlbuffy and @punksouthie here:

Gunn’s decisions in “That Old Gang of Mine” are heavily informed by the idea posed by writers that AI and his old community are ideologically opposed. He is forced to choose between the two. The reason he comes to the decision that he does is largely decided by the dynamics at play in the situation. It is only once he is put in a situation where those who he has bonded with are at risk – the showdown in Caritas – that Gunn fully reflects and decides to turn against those in his old community. Gunn recontextualizes the scenario as being about an “out of town” person stirring up trouble within his community only once Angel and Lorne are put at risk. While he says in this gifset that it is about the mission, he does not necessarily argue against demons as an “other” to humans but more argues in defense of Angel *specifically*:

Anne reflecting the existentialist themes of the show back at Gunn in “Never Fade Away” recontextualizes everything. It parallels Doyle’s conversation with Angel in “City of” around the need to not be cut off. In these short two lines of dialogue, so much is said.

This post contains a similar parallel:

In the larger context of the show, we can see that Gunn starts off a paragon of Doyle’s explicitly stated message of what the show is about. He is incredibly entrenched in his local community. He knows the people he interacts with in “First Impressions” and “The Thin Dead Line.” He fights not for an ideal but for others. Over time, as he interacts with AI, he gets increasingly cut off from those that he is helping, moving further and further away from the actual mission of AI.

In his first appearance Gunn recognizes this, actually:

The conversation with Anne is not just about AI having lost its way but also about Gunn losing Everything. The people he has spent years trying to fit in with look at him and see the reason Fred is dead. He has no one and has so thoroughly internalized the values of his white co-workers that when he goes back to help Anne, he is separated from his old community by a vast ideological language barrier.

Brief aside that I might go into in more depth in a later post but I would like you to think about Fred’s death with regard to Gunn’s words here. A missed opportunity with Gunn’s character is exploring how he is impacted by hypervigilance and his tendency for blaming himself for events out of his control:

One interesting direction a rewrite (from a writer’s room with black writers in it) could go is having Gunn become the leader post 2x11 “Redefinition,” leading to closer interaction with the people of LA. AI becomes a much more high-profile member of the community and there is more focus on how Wolfram and Hart enables material harm in high poverty areas. I will talk about this more in the future because I think it is an interesting road to go down.

This post barely scratches the surface of my thoughts on Gunn. I haven’t even explained the take on valuing community fully. I think to fully present my take on that I need to write up at least another full post on it. There is also so much more to write about other things, like more alternate roles Gunn could have filled in AI as I talk about here:

#long post #charles gunn #btvs meta #Angel the Series

[aroacehanzawa]

i'm going to be real with you guys for a moment. i don't think i'll continue following bsd much after this point

#i take back what i said about being excited for what's to come. i mean i am. in a very general impersonal way. #but the way the series is going. if the ending of the anime is going to be followed by the manga in a similar direction #is just very different from the silly armed detective agency vs port mafia authors with superpowers slightly high-stakes slice of life #that i originally signed up for. i've felt this way the whole decay of angels arc and just stuck around to see what happens #and because i care about the characters. bsd was always a character-focused manga for me #but the direction it seems to be taking is this massive epic entire-world-at-stake military scifi drama #where super epic power-up style ability weapons (and one-off overpowered nameless ability users are introduced and killed off in the same #scene. like the time manipulation catgirl) take the forefront at the expense of actual character focus and character development #like why are most of the (original) cast completely unaccounted for in what was meant to be a satisfying ending. #did asagiri forget that atsushi is the main character. why did tachihara's and sigma's arcs get cut short like that. #and frankly i feel like bsd started to take this direction from storm bringer onwards. the focus and scope of it is very different #to for example the untold origins or dazai's entrance exam or even 55 minutes. but if i were to theorise i would say that the scope of #the current direction of bsd must have started germinating during the 55 minutes light novel. if you can see what i mean #anyway more importantly i find that the tone is now entirely different from early bsd. it's just not the series that i fell in love with #so i think it's best that i stop here before letting it turn sour like jujutsu kaisen is to me now. #i have the manga (and anime) that i can reread (rewatch) up to the perfect crime arc whenever i want #i can reread the sskk fight of volume 20 whenever i want. i can revisit sigma and nikolai's chapters. there's wan. there's the light novels #and there's the wonderful fanfics and fanart and so many metas to read. that's what brings me joy more than the series itself nowadays. #that's all. end of era i guess. to an extent

[mad-as-a-box-of-frogs]

If I go with you . . . can you promise that this time it will be final? That if I'm dead, I stay dead. Nobody can reverse it, nobody can deal it away, and nobody else can get hurt because of me.

I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here (9x01): Supernatural (2005-2020) [127 / ?]

#series 5 #spnedit #spngif #spn 9x01 #Castiel #dean winchester #sam winchester #Hael spn #Bobby Singer #sorry no death scenes coloring that was near impossible #this episode really is the thesis episode for Carver era #and it's: one of the winchesters needs to finally accept death to break the codependency #and Castiel has no place with the angels and needs to stop helping them #always thinking about Zerbe's meta about Hael as the personification of Cas's grace #If we get s16 or whatever #we need a showrunner who actually believes it isn't a betrayal of the show to let both winchesters and cas live happily #gore cw #blood cw #supernatural #my gifs spn///

[girl4music]

Angel: "What?"

Cordy: "What?"

Angel: "What do you want to say?"

Cordy: "Ah, me? Nothing. What makes you think I wanna..."

Angel: "'Cause I know you.”

Cordy: "Well, it's really… none of my business."

Angel: "And that always stops you?”

Cordy: “Actually, it is my business, *our* business, because we're trying to do a job here, and what affects you affects me, and anyway, I don't like to see you suffer more than you have to. I don't think you should blame yourself, or feel guilty for her death."

Angel: "I don't."

Cordy: "Good. Glad to hear it."

Angel: "I didn't even know who she was when I killed her."

Cordy: "Not her! Angel..."

Angel:

*After a beat*

“Oh... you… you want to talk about..."

Cordy: "She was the love of your life and she died.

*Angel sits down on the stairs, facing Cordy*

*Steps closer*

And you weren't there when it happened.

*Sits down next to him with a sigh*

You couldn't help her fight. You couldn't save her. You couldn't die with her."

*Angel doesn’t answer*

—————————————————————————

Cordy: "And how about you?"

Angel: "I'm o..."

Cordy: "And don't say 'okay.' Angel, please. I know you. Ever since you've come back from your grief trip I can tell that something's not right. And, and *obviously* it's not. Buffy's dead, and I don't mean to diminish that. I miss her too. I just wanna say… I know that James with all his Romeo and Juliet madness, opened up a lot of wounds for you, but you'll be okay."

Angel: "I am okay."

Cordy: "Then what's the problem?"

Angel: "That I'm okay. That losing Buffy didn't kill me. That I could deal with it. In all those years no one ever mattered. Not like she did. And now she's gone. Forever.”

Cordy: "And you're still here."

Angel: "Yeah. I just feel like I'm betraying her somehow."

Cordy: "No! If you were a loser, if you were some sick obsessed vampire, you'd go to a Snod demon, or whatever, and get your heart cut out. But you're not! You're a living, breathing... Well, living, anyway, good guy, whose still fighting and trying to help people, and that's not betraying her, that's honoring her."

Angel: "You think?"

Cordy: "I'm Cordelia. I don't think. I know. Okay?"

*Cordy gives him a big grin, which draws a small smile in response*

Angel: "Okay."

So I’m on to Season 3 of ‘Angel the Series’ and this first episode was dealing with the aftermath of Buffy’s death in Season 5 of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. How it affects Angel and specifically how he keeps the grief of his loss to himself but Cordy can see through him.

But listen - Everything I’ve just quoted above showcases how much better of a relationship Angel has with Cordy over what he ever had with Buffy. All of THIS is what a RELATIONSHIP is. The way they just know each other that they can’t lie to one another. The way Cordy draws information out of Angel like no one else can and is so perceptive in figuring him out. The way he opens up to her with a minimum amount of prodding from her. The brick wall of non-communication that was Bangel is nowhere to be seen in Cangel. This entire conversation is about Buffy specifically and what Buffy means to Angel. Yet through it I can see that were it in reverse and it was Cordy that died and it was Buffy giving this speech….

There would honestly be nowhere near the breakthrough on revealing Angel’s emotions because they’re both one in the same when it comes to communication. They both hide away from each other in moments of being in need of someone to talk to. Maybe it’s just because they have more time and purpose to do significant character interaction in Angel’s own show when it comes to drawing out information from Angel’s psyche, but I just see so much more between Angel and Cordy - just friends - then I ever saw between apparent “love of their lives” Angel and Buffy. This level of intimate relation to one another is on the level of Spuffy or Tillow. This is what you’re supposed to have in a relationship where the people in it are actual partners. Honest and open communication. Buffy and Angel never had this… really ever. I mean I brought up the interaction and conversation they had in ‘Forever’ as the only time where I truly saw Bangel as genuinely relating to one another and this was well passed their heydays.

I really love what I’m seeing in this dynamic. This is what makes Angel - the character and the show - interesting to watch. He finally has someone who KNOWS him to the point where he cannot always brood away in silence and pretend like no one cares. Because that’s not interesting to watch. It’s just sad. Thank fuck Cordelia is in this show as a main character because not only is she better for it. But she makes HIM better for it as well! That’s precisely what was needed for either of them to be considered even half as interesting of a character to me as Willow or Spike. And okay - there’s still a lot to live up to there. But it’s a start! This is what I wanted to see in Bangel but I never could because they were so incompatible when it came to being each other’s sounding board. It was like they were trying but they were never breaking through that communication barrier between them so as much of a whirlwind romance that they had - that was written… there was just nothing holding it up other than all the physical intimacy that they shared. And that’s just shallow. There was no depth to it. Not like there is with Cangel. With what I can see in them.

#angel the series #hearthrob #cangel #angel #david boreanaz #cordelia chase #charisma carpenter #relationship #communication #dynamic #character representation #character development #meta

[lifedagame]

*makes out*

#buffy the vampire slayer #faith lehane #angel the series #btvs #buffy #buffy comics #buffy summers #buffy x faith #buffyverse #buffy btvs #faith btvs #faith #btvs memes #btvs meta #mine: btvs #btvsedit #ik i already posted this but it did horribly #2000s #90s #wlw #secret lovers

[hersterical]

soul lore in Buffy is finally beginning to make sense in my head (give me a break, I didn’t watch the show until COVID and didn’t start taking part in the fandom until at least a year after that). A lot of this is basic stuff the fandom’s been saying for years, this is just to help get my thoughts in order before I fall asleep and lose the train of thought.

There are a few important elements but I think the two biggest ways the lack of a soul influences a vampire is 1. No moral compass and 2. No empathy (as we see mostly with Spike but a few others as well, they can have sympathy but no empathy). I also don’t get the impression that soulless vampires are capable of true, selfless love. Again looking at Spike, whenever he loves someone pre-soul it always felt possessive or like he wanted to be possessed by someone. Sure, he sincerely wanted certain people he cared about to be happy, but he didn’t want them to be happy just for the simple sake of them being happy. At best he wanted them to be happy because being around them makes him happy and it’s his happiness that truly mattered to him. So if there ever came a time where the happiness of the person he cared about didn’t make him happy anymore, then he wouldn’t care about their happiness. This is mostly based on Spike because he’s the vampire we have the most opportunity to understand while he doesn’t have a soul. To me it seems that all soulless vampires could be placed on a scale from Spike, who possesses the most amount of sympathy and derives the greatest amount of happiness from the happiness of others, to Angellus who doesn’t have a single ounce of sympathy and actively takes joy out of the misery of others. Most seem to tend closer towards Angellus’ end of the scale and I wanted to explore that a bit.

Before I do that though there are some important things of a more physiological nature that would influence vampires both with and without a soul. The first is that I’ve always gotten the impression that a vampire’s primal, predator instincts are more heightened and animalistic than humans. The way I see it there are two main explanations for this: 1. Those instincts come from the demon that possesses the body or 2. Something about becoming a vampire allows them to access the human’s dormant predatory instincts. I’m no evolutionary scientist so I can’t say how likely that second one is, but no matter what it’d be far from the hardest thing this show asks the viewers to suspend their disbelief for. The other thing about vampire physiology has just little enough evidence to support it that I would probably have to classify it as a headcanon. I am convinced that human blood is an addictive substance to vampires based on how secretly being fed Connor’s blood influenced Angel.

With all that said, I’d like to take this opportunity to explore the after-life span of an average Joe vampire.

Imagine you wake up and it is dark, cold and suffocating. But none of that bothers you because more than anything you are hungry. No living being has her possessed this great hunger that you are experiencing right now. Not even being capable of conscious thought at this point, you start clawing. Eventually you dig your way up to the surface where you either have your sire waiting for you, holding in their arms the greatest smelling meal you’ve ever smelt in your whole life, a human, or no one and you need to find something to eat yourself. Even if you find a small animal to eat that’s not enough to satiate your all consuming hunger. No matter what you’re going to get your first taste of human blood as a vampire that night. And it is the greatest thing you have ever tasted. Sure, you had to kill someone to get it, but you don’t care. As you finished eating and stared at the corpse of a human being whose heart is no longer beating because of you, the closest you get to regret, shame, or guilt is the surprise that you don’t feel any of those things.

That was the best thing you’ve ever experienced but you still don’t have a particular desire to kill people. You might even avoid it for a bit in order to avoid attention or out of habit. But even if you actively don’t want to kill another human for whatever reason, you can’t get the taste of their blood off your tongue. The thought of human blood consumes you every waking moment of your life, which is quite a bit considering you don’t need to sleep anymore. But whether it be in a day or a week or a year, you will kill another human. This time you do care. Not that they’re dead, no. But in that moment as you took their life force and made it your own, you have never felt more powerful or in control (ironic considering vampires actually tend to lose control while drinking human blood). Even with all of this great supernatural power you’ve been gifted with, nothing is as powerful as taking a human life. And the blood itself. It feels almost like your rapidly fading memories of warm sunlight on your skin, gentle instead of burning. You’ve never been particularly power hungry before so even though that part might be cool, it doesn’t hold a candle to the sensation of drinking blood. Whatever hesitation you might have had towards killing humans is now gone. But that still doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to though.

You go and visit your loved ones from when you were alive, but when you get there all you can think is how weak you were. How dull the life of a mortal is. How nice the warmth of the sun was on your skin. How it felt to be loved. How it felt to be willing to give your own life and happiness for the sake of someone else’s. It fills you with rage, disgust, and even jealousy for your old self. You take your power back and get rid of any reminders of who you used to be.

Time goes on. Decades pass. You feed, you travel, and you learn. And you grow bored. What was once an exciting after life is nothing but pure drudgery. Even the taste of human blood is becoming common after so long of living off nothing but that. What hasn’t gotten old is the chase. The hunt. That power you once got a taste of but didn’t particularly care for at the time is the only thing that can make you feel anything. Humans are no longer tasty little juice boxes, they’re your play things. The adrenaline from the hunt turns your hunger for blood, into a hunger for power over people.

Eventually the chase grows stale. It’s just too easy. You try to spice it up by toying with humans. Making them scream or beg. But it’s still not enough. That’s when you hear about it. A hellmouth. A slayer. Both together in the same place. One of the greatest sources of power for a demon alongside with the greatest challenge any vampire could hope to face. It’s more powerful than any siren call, how could you possibly resist. Sunnydale is waiting for you.

You get there and between the influence of the hellmouth and the group think of a ridiculous amount of vampires and other demons, it feels as exhilarating as the dance floor of a crowded nightclub. Which is funny because the local nightclub is where you do most of your feeding.

You lead your latest victim out into the back alley, and start feeding. You are once again growing bored even on a hellmouth with the prospect of facing a slayer. It’s just too easy. These are your thoughts when you hear someone clear their throat. This surprises you enough to pull you away from your meal to see a small, blonde girl who’s dressed for a night of dancing. Dessert. Except something’s off. She tilts her head and outs on a mock pout as she asks if she could just get one night off. You don’t like her attitude, her face looking far too smug for your taste, and her blood is singing out to you like no blood has ever done before. You feel almost as hungry as the night you crawled out of your grave. Tossing aside the barely alive human you were just feeding on, you eagerly lunge at the small woman.

She punches you in the face. Hard. You fall to the ground and scramble back up as quickly as possible as you’re filled with a sudden certainty. “Slayer!” You snarl with equal parts shock, anticipation, and fear.

“Is that part of the vampire handbook or something? You guys really gotta get some new material.” She says in response.

How dare she? The insolence! You’ve drained the life out of hundreds of humans before her. You are immortal. Invincible. And she just dismisses you like you’re nothing? She will learn. You are the night, you are fueled by the life-force you’ve been draining out of humans for decades. You’ve seen things this little girl couldn’t think up in her worst nightmares. You have purged yourself of all weaknesses and now you will obtain the greatest power any vampire could ever hope to possess, the blood of a slayer.

You run for her, your claws reaching for her.

You are immediately impaled. As you crumble to dust you hear the last words you’ll ever hear: a half-hearted quip about you not being the dance partner she was hoping for tonight.

#long post #it went from being meta to being a fanfic partway through #btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #Soul lore #angel btvs #spike btvs #angel the series #ats

[thefiresofpompeii]

i don’t even like taylor. what’s happening to me. ridiculous. amy song of all time???

#!!!!! are you HEARING this #down bad #web weaving #amy pond #amelia pond #doctor who #dw #11amy #eleven #eleventh doctor #matt smith #steven moffat #karen gillan #doctor who series 5 #the eleventh hour #the angels take manhattan #rory williams #doctor who meta #jamie.txt