#this really feels 'deliberately foreshadowy'

[anthurak]

So I have a hunch that we’re going to find out that Ruby actually has some… special connection to the Relics.

See, let’s consider for a moment the fact that as of the end of Volume 8, all three of Jinn’s answers have been questioned. Which, according to everything we know, means that it should be a hundred years before more questions can be asked, and by extension, before we could see Jinn again.

Now the thing is, I think we call all agree that it is EXTREMELY unlikely that this is the last we’re meant to see of a character like Jinn in RWBY. If for nothing else than it feels like we’re meant to get at least one more vision from her in a big ‘Once More, With Clarity’ reveal.

Like you know the theory that the main reason for the Unreliable-Narrator nature of Jinn’s vision in Volume 6 was because Ruby’s question was ‘What is Ozpin hiding from us?’, meaning that Jinn’s answer was framed ENTIRELY around what Oz knew, or BELIEVED, ie; all the info/propaganda he was told/fed by the God of Light about what happened while he was dead.

So I think it feels like a pretty natural step that we could wind up seeing someone, likely Ruby again, doing a redux of that moment where she asks Jinn a far more direct question, say; “What happened to Old Humanity?”, to get the TRUTH of what really happened.

Which all means that our heroines are somehow going to get MORE answers out of Jinn. And since a hundred-year timeskip seems… unlikely, to say the least, that leaves us with really just two options:

Time-manipulation shenanigans to ‘speed up’ the normal hundred-year recharge, which we don’t have any kind of precedent for at the moment.

Or, it turns out that there are ways of BYPASSING Jinn’s normal three-question limit.

Which brings us to Ruby, who just so happens to have a mysterious inborn power apparently originating from the very being who CREATED Jinn and the other relic spirits.

Basically, I’ve got a hunch that Ruby’s Silver Eyes, possibly as a result of developing/realizing more of their powers, turn out to give her what is essentially ‘administrator access’ to the Relics, allowing her to bypass their normal restrictions.

Like getting more answers from Jinn.

And the funny thing is, we’ve actually ALREADY seen Ruby get both relic spirits we’ve met thus far to, shall we say, skirt the rules a bit.

Ruby got what was essentially a freebie out of Jinn to get herself more time to use her Silver Eyes against the Leviathan: “And while you do not seek knowledge, just this once I was give it freely.” Also note that Jinn’s warning was merely that she would not be summoned ‘without a question’ again. What if it turns out that Ruby is actually capable of asking Jinn more questions? It’s also worth noting that this instance feels distinct from what we saw later when Hazel and Emerald summoned Jinn seemingly for free: Unlike Ruby, Hazel was ‘seeking knowledge’ when he summoned Jinn, and the fact that the so-called ‘password’ worked gave him all the answers he needed, which in turn satisfies Jinn’s mandate to answer questions. Which again feels rather distinct from the outright FREEBIE that Jinn gives Ruby.

And then of course there’s the whole bit where Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang got Ambrosius to SUPER-skirt his own rules to make Penny a new body. Which we’re still a bit hazy on HOW they got that to work. Again, given that it was Ruby who summoned Ambrosius, what if it turns out that she was able to get him to BYPASS his normal restrictions?

Another neat little detail to all this is the fact that we are actually two-for-two on Ruby being the FIRST person shown on-screen using each of the relics. She’s the first person we see using the Lamp to summon Jinn, and again the first person we see using the Staff to summon Ambrosius. So I can’t help but think we’re likely to see this pattern continue with the Sword and the Crown.

I realize some of these on their own might feel like a bit of a stretch, but taken together I think we can start seeing a pattern:

Right now, Ruby is two-for-two on both being the first person shown on screen using a relic AND getting what seems to be special treatment from both relic spirits AND just so happens to have a power that apparently originates from the very being who CREATED the relics in the first place.

I can’t help but feel like this is all going somewhere…

#rwby #rwby analysis #rwby theory #Ruby Rose #rwby relics #rwby jinn #rwby ambrosius #rwby silver eyes #this really feels 'deliberately foreshadowy'

[dingoes8myrp]

Two Sides of a Coin: An Angel Character Study

As many times as I’ve seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series, I’ve never quite wrapped my head around Angel. But, rewatching season two of Buffy, I think I’m onto something…

This may be an unpopular theory, particularly for my Bangel shipper friends. You’ve been warned.

Buffy and Angel as a couple were powerful, but at times uncomfortable to watch. While the romance was full of passion and butterflies, there were also a few controversial elements to the relationship even before the Angelus switch. There was always something off about Angel.

Here it is.

Angel and Angelus are indeed the same guy.

The fact that Angel the character considers himself a separate person from Angelus creates some murkiness when it comes to the psychology of vampires in general. When Spike is ensouled later in the series he displays a degree of instability, but it’s not dissociative in nature as it is with Angel. Therefore, not all vampires are a separate consciousness from their human selves. This is something unique to Angel, perhaps as a coping mechanism to deal with the trauma of his re-ensoulment. It makes more sense that he himself merely views Angelus as a separate entity because it makes it easier for him to deal with the horrible things he did without a soul.

In the first three seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel is somewhat set apart from the rest of the group. He has limited contact with them due to his aversion to sunlight and the fact that Buffy’s mother, Joyce, doesn’t approve of him dating her daughter due to their apparent age difference (Oh, season two Joyce, if you only knew). He also deliberately keeps a great deal of information from Buffy. She has no idea he’s a vampire when she first gets to know him, leading her to invite him into her home (something a slayer likely wouldn’t have done otherwise). She only finds out because he goes all vamp-face while they’re kissing. Angel never tells Buffy anything about his past unless she digs it up and confronts him with it.

When Buffy finds Angel in her kitchen, a bloody Joyce unconscious in his arms, she naturally assumes Angel fed on her mother. It’s only when Buffy goes after him armed with a crossbow that he tells her who he was before: that he killed his family, their friends, he killed children. Then he tells her about the curse - how he got his soul. This gives Buffy enough pause for him to tell her it wasn’t him that attacked her mother. This pause is likely the reason he told her at all.

Also, it would have been super helpful if Angel had given the gang a heads-up about Darla, particularly when she was masquerading as a schoolgirl. He even asked her what the deal was with the schoolgirl look, but didn’t think to maybe tell Buffy and her friends how she operated? He did tell them bits and pieces, but he couldn’t tell them too much about Darla without also telling them about himself, which he wasn’t willing to do.

When Spike came around Angel used Xander as bait, putting him at risk when he offered to feed on him with Spike like they were drinking buddies. Not something Xander agreed to, by the way. Again, Angel neglected to mention quite a bit about Spike’s past that would have been helpful to know (though he was more forthcoming than he had been previously, likely because he’d become a more trusted member of the group by this point).

Angel didn’t tell Buffy about Drusilla’s past until she saw them together and asked him about it. He did tell Buffy most of the details, as far as we know.

Here’s where things get uncomfortable and foreshadowy.

Angel tells Buffy Drusilla was sweet and chaste and, therefore, became an obsession for him. He doesn’t say why, but based on what we learn about Angelus later, it could be because she represents everything he isn’t. She’s also troubled, plagued with visions she believes are evil. He stalked her, tormented her, killed everyone she loved, drove her insane, and then turned her into a demon - the last thing in the world she would have wanted as someone about to become a nun.

After Angel loses his soul and reverts back to Angelus, he begins to repeat this pattern with Buffy. When Spike becomes frustrated Angel won’t just kill Buffy, Drusilla observes Angel doesn’t want to kill her - he wants to do the same thing he did to Drusilla. Angel confirms this. He starts sending Buffy gifts, going after her friends, her mother. This all makes sense and it fits right in with what we know about pre-soul-toting Angel.

At the end of season two, we get some flashbacks of Angel post-soul when he’s guided to Buffy by Whistler. Angel watches Buffy without her knowledge when she’s in Los Angeles. He sees her when she’s called by her watcher, watches her fight some of her first vampires, and observes a very private moment as Buffy overhears her parents fighting. Then, Angel follows her to Sunnydale and continues to stalk her until she catches him at it. He gives her cryptic clues and gifts (remember the cross and the jacket?), he teases her and toys with her.

All of that fits Angelus, too.

These two personas aren’t as different as he’d like people to believe.

Buffy views Angel as a great love, someone she’s willing to sacrifice certain aspects of her life for, to risk friends and family for. As the show is focused largely on Buffy, this is the picture of their relationship that’s most prominent. However, this relationship is much more a cautionary tale than it is a great romance.

Perhaps the overall point of Angel and Buffy as a couple is to illustrate how dangerous vampires truly are, even the “good” ones.

Xander is the most vocal about his dislike of Angel. Part of this is due to his feelings for Buffy, but he also has genuine concerns about the fact that Angel is a vampire. This is due to his severe dislike of vampires in general after the events of The Harvest that led to the death of his friend, Jesse. Giles voices some concern about Buffy becoming involved with a vampire, mainly due to the confusion it’ll cause with her duties as slayer. But, once Angel proves to Giles he truly cares for Buffy, Giles supports Buffy’s decision. Joyce, however, is another vocal disapprover. From very early on, Joyce tells Buffy Angel is too old for her and Buffy hides her involvement with him from her mother.

It’s no coincidence that Buffy has sex with Angel and is almost immediately introduced to the other side to him, Angelus. Part of Angel’s curse that never really tracked was the fact that if he experienced even one moment of happiness he’d lose his soul. Why would something like this be a part of this particular curse? Even Jenny Calendar points out this makes no sense when her uncle tells her about it.

Perhaps this is because it has nothing to do with the curse and everything to do with Angel’s psychology. All the curse did was give Angelus back his soul - his conscience - to make him regret everything he’s done and live forever with his guilt. Angel’s the one who keeps the curse intact out of remorse and fear. He’s horrified by his own actions as Angelus and he doesn’t want to do those things again. He knows if he loses his soul he’ll lose his conscience and go back to his old ways, which he doesn’t want. It’s Angel that keeps that aspect of himself separate as much as he can. So, it stands to reason that the second he stops doing that - if he doesn’t make an active effort to keep himself in check - that it would all go to Hell in a handbasket. It’s Angel that keeps the curse intact and it’s Angel who breaks it. Buffy just happens to be the catalyst. She makes him feel human and worthy of love, which is something he may have never felt even as a mortal man.

The fact is, Buffy didn’t truly know Angel. She knew what he wanted her to know, the parts of him he chose to share with her. While the person Buffy fell for does exist, it’s not the whole picture. Angelus is also part of the package, even though it’s a part of him he chooses to repress as much as possible. But, Angelus comes out in other ways, in certain aspects of his personality. He is still quite fond of violence. He doesn’t just fight demons to help people. There’s a part of him that enjoys it. He toys with people, engages in a little interrogation and torture when the occasion calls for it. His soul - his conscience - generally keeps him from overstepping into the realm of psychopathy, but that doesn’t mean Angelus is entirely gone.

So, what does this mean for the character of Angel, and how does it affect his relationships with other characters?

Angel and Angelus

The tough part about Angel for the audience is that he’s a very introspective character. It’s a running gag throughout both series that Angel’s a brooder: he sits alone in the dark with his thoughts. There’s a lot of truth to this, as Angel rarely delves into what he’s thinking or feeling, particularly in seasons one and two of Buffy. It stands to reason he’s a very conflicted person. There’s a duality to him he doesn’t quite know how to deal with. He’s a man tainted by a demon with a human soul. That’s a complicated individual right there with a lot going on. He’s constantly battling between his urges and his conscience. This tug and pull is most prominent as he goes through is relationship with Buffy.

Angel and Buffy

Angel keeps Buffy at a distance to some degree. She often comments she doesn’t know as much as she’d like to about him, from the types of women he used to date as a mortal to the extent of his involvement with Drusilla and Spike. This gives her a false impression of him and it’s always a rude awakening for her when she gets a new piece of this puzzle. Angel is well aware of this. He knows what he is and while he hopes she’d still love him if she knew the whole story, he’s fearful she won’t. So, he keeps her in the dark as long as possible as much as possible, which causes a lot of tension in the relationship. While part of this is self-preservation on his part, it’s also for her protection. The last person we know of Angel pursued with the same amount of passion as he shows for Buffy was Drusilla… and he destroyed her, condemning her to a fate worse than death. He’s terrified of what he’ll do to Buffy if she stays with him. So, he keeps a safe distance until he gives into his desires and has sex with her. Because, for him, his urges are linked to Angelus, it makes sense that he’d revert back to his old self.

Angel and Darla

Angel was in a sorry state when he came upon Darla. He was a drunk with a low self-image. Darla promised him a new life and he saw her as an escape, salvation. Perhaps this is also why he was drawn to Buffy. She was another woman he came across at a pivotal part of his life, when he was low and depressed, without direction. When Darla showed up in Sunnydale, apparently looking to get him back into the fold (perhaps to get him back altogether), this caused a conflict for Angel. He was faced with his previous life while making a new one for himself and he had to choose between the two, which he did when he killed Darla.

Angel and Spike and Drusilla

When Spike and Drusilla arrive in Sunnydale, once again Angel has to choose between his two identities. It’s important that these two come along as his relationship with Buffy is progressing. It puts his two selves - his two lives - directly in opposition. Spike appears to both look up to Angel and to compete with him. He says himself he learned a lot from Angel (calling him his “Yoda”). Angel, in turn, knows a great deal about Spike and Drusilla. He knows how they think, how they operate - intimate details - and he frequently uses this to manipulate them, both as Angel and as Angelus. This is another trait that seems to be at the core of Angel’s character, regardless of the state of his soul.

Angel and Xander

Xander is one of two non-vampiric characters who seem to truly “get” who Angel is. Xander never fully trusts Angel, both because he doesn’t trust vampires as a whole and because he’s very protective of Buffy. Throughout the first three seasons of Buffy there’s a quiet rivalry between Angel and Xander, with Angel trying to convince Buffy that he’s good and Xander trying to convince her otherwise. It’s important to note that Angel with a soul takes a jab at Xander when he gets an opportunity to do so, when he’s able to use the excuse of acting a part. This happens when Angel confronts Spike at Sunnydale High, trying to convince him he’s still Angelus. It also happens when Angel pretends to have joined Faith and the Mayor. This doesn’t seem to be by accident on Angel’s part.

Angel and Faith

Faith also sees a broader picture of Angel. This becomes particularly evident when she goes to him for help, having no other options. Faith also has a duality about her and a great deal of self-loathing regarding the bad things she’s done. The two of them understand each other in a way that’s unique to them.

The reason Angel and Angelus create a problem with the vampire lore is that the separation has nothing to do with the lore. It’s Angel’s own distinction. But, on close observation, shades of Angelus can be seen in Angel and vice-versa.

I’m still rewatching, so I may write more on Angel later.

#angel the series #angel #angelus #buffy the vampire slayer