Hey, I love your meta and especially the ones on Angel as I'm huge fan. If you have the time could you write a bit of Angel meta? As long or short as you like, and any topic under that umbrella. :) Thanks! Hope you are well.
Thank you so much, glad you enjoy my meta ramblings! You know, it’sinteresting, through all the Angel meta I’ve been asked to write, no one hasever asked me to write one on Angel himself, so I might take this opportunityto do just that, given how much I love my broody, petty manpire.
If you have only watched BtVS, you wouldn’t think much of Angel’scharacter, as he exists mostly to be Buffy’s love interest, with littledevelopment of his own until Season 3. While Season 2 does expand upon hischaracter a bit with the Angelus storyline and Season 3 starts to lay thefoundation for his subsequent character development with episodes such asAmends and The Prom providing some insight into Angel’s character,it’s not until he moves to his own show that he emerges as the multi-faceted,layered and nuanced character we have all come to love.
The first notable characteristic of Angel’s, which ties very much intohis state of mind and self-flagellating tendencies, is that he is a very isolatedperson. This is partially due to his introverted nature but even more so, itlinks directly to his belief that he doesn’t deserve to walk in the human worldand his day-to-day struggle with Angelus. Once re-ensouled, Angel withdrew fromhumans, from vampires, from demons, from everyone really. He couldn’t walk withhis former allies but being what he was, he didn’t know how to integrate intothe human world, and as we see in the AtS episode Are You Now, Or Have You EverBeen, the few times he has tried, it has failed spectacularly.
This is one of the reasons why Buffy was so pivotal for him, why shewas so important and such a turning point for him as a character and as aperson. Buffy was the first person who brought Angel into the human world and kepthim there. In Buffy, he found another isolated person, someone who, likehim, couldn’t quite fit into either world because she walked the line betweenboth. While Angel has made human connections before, Buffy was the first personto truly ground him in the human world. She gave him light and love and aboveall hope. She made him hate himself less, made him believe that maybe hedid deserve to live among humans, that he did deserve human companionship andlove. Without Buffy, Angel may very well have wallowed in self-pity, guilt andself-loathing for the rest of his days.
Angel’s tendency to wallow in these emotions ties directly to hisself-loathing and his suicidal tendencies, neither of which are often discussedin the fandom, which is interesting because both are big parts of hispersonality. Given the presence of his soul, making him feel two centuriesworth of guilt over what he did as Angelus, it’s unsurprising that Angel has aself-destructive/suicidal streak and over the course of both shows we see himvery willing to end his own life, whether selfishly motivated by guilt (BtVSAmends) or in order to save another person (AtS The Trial). It’s quite sad tothink about and paints Angel in a very tragic light, as an almost Byronic hero.
This is where Angel’s quest for redemption stems from, or rather, hisdesire to do good in the world, his if nothing we do matters, then all thatmatters is what we do mantra. With a soul, Angel cares deeply for humanity,cares for people, for his friends and he genuinely strives to make a differencein the world. Partially spurned on by his guilt, partially motivated by theevil he sees and wishes to eliminate, much of Angel’s journey and arc isconsumed by his fight to make a difference, his desire to improve the world.Because he struggles day-to-day with keeping his evil side in check, he has atendency to become very disappointed and disillusioned with humanity whenconfronted with the evil in the world, when forced to see that humans are, well,human, that they fail and hurt and kill and commit evil. Angel is a verygood person and as such he holds humanity to a very high standard.
On the flip-side, there is also a true darkness to Angel, a sadistic,pragmatic and cruel side which genuinely enjoys inflicting pain, in mentallytorturing people and which can cut him off from his warmer emotions and turn him intoa cold and unfeeling person. This is the side which is let loose andexaggerated when he is Angelus, when he loses the control, empathy and moralitywhich come with a soul. I’ve said this before but Angel isn’t dark because ofAngelus, Angelus is dark because of Angel. The extremity of Angeluscomes about because Angel himself has a real, genuine darkness in him andwithout a soul this darkness goes unchecked, runs amok and brings out a trulyterrifying and evil persona. Part of Angel’s struggle and arc is keeping thisside to him in check, even with a soul, and it only serves to make him moreendearing when we watch him control his darker impulses.
Despite being such an isolated character, Angel is the best version ofhimself when he has people in his life whom he loves and who love him. As seenin Season 2 of AtS, when he loses these people he loses a part of himself andhis darkness becomes more pronounced and harder to keep in check. Beingsomething other than human, he needs people around him to remind him of his humanity,of the person beneath the vampire, the man and not the demon. Buffy was thisfor him initially and on his own show he has Cordy, Wes, Gunn, Fred andespecially Connor to remind him of who he is and who he strives to be.
At the end of the day, Angel is a fantastic character, well-written,beautifully portrayed by David Boreanaz and amazing to watch. I wish more BtVSfans would watch AtS, as they would be able to see the layers, depth andnuances the show gives Angel, turning him from what was initially a somewhattwo-dimensional character who didn’t really exist outside of his relationshipwith Buffy, to a full-developed, fleshed-out character, strong enough to carryhis own show.
