Not too harsh! I always appreciate your comments, positive or not :o) The whole point of the SSS thing I was trying to get at the other day was: I don't really care. I mean, I see all those problems you and L pointed out, and . . . it just doesn't bother me all that much. I got what I wanted to out of it.
If I had been having SSS while writing this, I'd've addressed these things, particularly the characterization issue. (I, personally find this piece OOC. It's something I could imagine Angel *doing* this, but it'd take a lot more to get me there.) But if I had been writing it like that, it either 1) would've never got finished, 2) a billion other ideas I had while agonizing over it would never have gotten finished.
So, anyway. It's a good thing to learn from, and I see lots of things that can be improved whether or not I do have SSS. But it is nice not feeling like I had to give birth or something just to say one simple little thing!
I agree with most of what you say except: both times it was to save someone he loves from dying.
In IWRY it was not to save someone from dying. It was because Angel was convinced he should be punished more. (Also that the world needed him, which is a worthier cause, but, I think, secondary to Angel).
(OTOH, the thing about IWRY, is Angel probably wouldn't have made Buffy forget, if he'd've had a choice. He probably would've had some moral scruples about that. But the Oracles implied that was the only way to make Angel human again (more importantly, the writers needed to return Buffy to her own show unscathed). Since Angel didn't have a choice, it was a nice side benefit for him that he didn't have to cause her pain and got to take it all on himself.)
In Home, I'm not convinced it's to save Connor, either. Connor was going to kill all those people, but it wasn't clear he was going to kill himself, too. Angel did it so Connor could have the life Angel thought Connor should have had. (Which, I think, is a really big reason, way stronger than what I set up here.)
Re: I'm going to take you at your word ...
If I had been having SSS while writing this, I'd've addressed these things, particularly the characterization issue. (I, personally find this piece OOC. It's something I could imagine Angel *doing* this, but it'd take a lot more to get me there.) But if I had been writing it like that, it either 1) would've never got finished, 2) a billion other ideas I had while agonizing over it would never have gotten finished.
So, anyway. It's a good thing to learn from, and I see lots of things that can be improved whether or not I do have SSS. But it is nice not feeling like I had to give birth or something just to say one simple little thing!
I agree with most of what you say except:
both times it was to save someone he loves from dying.
In IWRY it was not to save someone from dying. It was because Angel was convinced he should be punished more. (Also that the world needed him, which is a worthier cause, but, I think, secondary to Angel).
(OTOH, the thing about IWRY, is Angel probably wouldn't have made Buffy forget, if he'd've had a choice. He probably would've had some moral scruples about that. But the Oracles implied that was the only way to make Angel human again (more importantly, the writers needed to return Buffy to her own show unscathed). Since Angel didn't have a choice, it was a nice side benefit for him that he didn't have to cause her pain and got to take it all on himself.)
In Home, I'm not convinced it's to save Connor, either. Connor was going to kill all those people, but it wasn't clear he was going to kill himself, too. Angel did it so Connor could have the life Angel thought Connor should have had. (Which, I think, is a really big reason, way stronger than what I set up here.)