forget your Unified Theory of Everything

-Is it so wrong of me to want a story with Connor and Angel, where the young, hip barista thinks it so sweet that someone as young, hot and rich as the football-shouldered pale guy in leather still takes his 70-year-old blue-eyed grandfather (he looks like Peter O'Toole. Is that wrong?) out for coffee every Tuesday?

-There's nothing weird about wanting Faith to have a passel of brats and for all of them to call their mommy's best friend, "Aunt Buffy". And for mommy and Aunt Buffy every once in a while to kiss in the laundry room, Faith sitting on the dryer with her legs around Buffy, asking, "The sheets clean, yet?" Buffy pulling away and finding the fabric softener and saying, "Yeah. You cleaned up real good." See. Not weird.

-And if Buffyverse really were to go all Round Table, wouldn't Buffy actually be the one who's King Arthur? Is it so wrong that this probably makes Spike Guinevere? Faith would be Morgan Le Fay, and Willow is obviously Merlin.

-Spike, self-portrait.

Dana drew some pictures small,
scribbled her crayon Watchers.
They beat her, drew her blood
got dripped, down a line of Slayers.
Might've been Fred who drew her
out of hell, on the wall;
Might've been Xander who knew her,
Watched her crayon/pencil it all in.
Willow who fucked her, made her
over Buffy who made her fuck,
or Angel made her Dru.
And when you looked at all those pictures,
small, you saw
she drew them all of you.

Over the last few months, I've been rewatching BtVS and AtS, and during S3 of BtVS some things began to make sense to me that hadn't before. This stuff has kinda been brewing for a long time, and it all just burped on the page, so it might not really be an essay or great meta or whatever. I'm going for three things, here:

1. To explain some things about the character of Angel to myself which might've long been obvious to you.
2. To present a cohesive way of looking at the character. There are some threads which tie together or parallel that I didn't notice before, which present a major theme for the character: he always thinks he can get something, and that he needs outside forces to motivate him to act. I'm not sure I really believe this "theme" or theory or what have you, but it's a way of looking at the character. I'm interested in the flaws of the theory as well as the ways in which it fits.
3. To take Angel down a notch or two. Because I do love the character so much, I'm interested in seeing him for what he really is rather than some fangirl construct. The viewpoint above is a slightly less exalted view than I normally take of the character, which is I guess why I think it's interesting.

This is about Angel pre-AtS. I have some ideas about how this way of looking at the character plays out in his own series, but I'll write that up another time. I also have this really weird Angel and Xander meta I need to write which connects to this, but gah, this is long. So, here it is,( a view of Angel from Liam to the end of BtVS S3 )


If you bothered to take the time to read this long boring wordy viewpointy metay thing, open to all discussion, questions, disagreements, "but that's just stupid"s and "what the hell were you thinking"s. In fact, it's open to that even if you didn't read because hey, free place here, but I'm really interested in what other people think about this.

Hopefully after that post filled with hearts and love and flowers, everyone (who gives a damn) can tell I love B/A. Much thanks for all that lovely discussion, and reccing to bring other people into discuss. It was lots o' fun, and I think even some people who didn't love B/A could see that there are many wonderful excellent things about it, things that make our knees go squishy, things that make us think it's something that is real and true in both characters.

That said, there're things that just drives me personally crazy about it, and not in a good way.

( Stuff I just can't stand about B/A )

Also, I love B/A fanfic. It's what brought me to the fandom, and there are a bunch of talented B/A authors and a bunch of great B/A fics. But there are also certain things that crop up in some B/A fanfic that's not to my taste. These are just my opinions, personal quibbles and dislikes I have. Actually, almost all of these things have appeared in excellent fics I've loved to death--in the end, it really just depends on how these elements are handled. Disclaimer over, now onto the dirt. ;o)

( Things I don't like to see in B/A fanfic (prove me wrong!) )

Okay, now that the unpleasantness is over, rec a fic with these elements you really really like. Or explain why you like the canon B/A bits I dislike and woo me into loving them too. Or rant about things you dislike about your own OTP here or here (it's never too late). Or love, love hard, on B/A, other pairings, Jossverse, fandom, kittens, soda pop, and your RL honey, be it your husband, your dog, or--if you're like me--that big bar of chocolate and B/A ep you plan on curling up with tomorrow.

ETA: I hate the term "Bangel". That's at the top of my list.

Sometimes you just need to get certain things out of your system.

( Five things that keep coming to mind: )

Thanks. All better, now.