Why We Fight (w/ Spoilers)
Feb. 12th, 2004 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxOne of the things I have struggled with where the Whedonverse is concerned is that they really aren't character driven. They're driven by what message/point they want to make. It really isn't about Lawson and never was. It's a parable and ME ended it with the questions they wanted to end it with. . .looking for a reason.
It's funny, I saw someone list this ep as a stand alone, and what surprised me was that I haven't been thinking of it as a stand alone at all. Yes, it IS a stand alone, but ever since we found out the spoilers for Ep 15, I have considered this ep to be pretty much of the season theme. Heck, I've seen that really, ME has been pretty darn arc oriented all along. Or maybe not arc so much as repetition and pondering of a limited number of themes.
Ep 1 - "Conviction" Quote:
HAUSER: You really think you can solve the problem? Come into Wolfram and Hart and make everything right? Turn night into glorious day? You pathetic little fairy.
ANGEL: I'm not little.
HAUSER: That's exactly what you are. You're minuscule. A dust mote on the shelf of that great institution. Now, you think I'm just a trigger-happy jerk who follows orders, but I am something you will never be. I'm pure. I believe in evil. You and your friends, you're conflicted. You're confused. We're not. That is why you are gonna lose, because we possess the most powerful thing in the world...conviction.
ANGEL: There is one thing more powerful than conviction. Mercy.
It's all right there in the title and in the episode. Angel is accused of lacking "conviction" and the question of "coviction"/belief vs. mercy is set up. After Connor and Cordy and all the shit that went down, Angel is unsure what he's fighting for. (And, note, that Gunn gets his brain implant. Why? Last year he was complaining about not really serving much of a purpose in the group. . .well, except muscle. Gunn's looking for a new purpose)
Ep 2 - "Just Rewards" Quote:
HAINSLEY: You're a ghost. Well, close enough, anyway. That's just a horrible way to be. You're not here, you're not there, just lost, somewhere in the middle. And you can't fight against it. You can't fix it. Hell, you can't even lift a finger 'cause you simply don't have any. I can give you back what's been taken from you—freedom, power of choice. I can put your destiny back in your own flesh-and-bone hands.
Quote:
FRED: I mean, I know he's already dead, but... he'd be gone-dead. Forever. It just doesn't seem right.
WESLEY: I agree, but neither is leaving him here, trapped between realms, with no control over his fate, not able to touch anything, affect anything. Unable to fight. Letting him cross over seems the most merciful thing—
Quote:
SPIKE: I can't live like this, Angel. Being useless. Being nothing.
Again we visited the "not one thing or another," searching for a purpose, the question of mercy(should Spike be killed? Is that mercy?) And we get the whole necromancer displacing one spirit so that a demon can inhabit the corpse.
Ep 3 - "Unleashed" A new theme is added (or is it just a variation on the theme?) And this theme has been repeated a LOT. The Monster vs the Innocent. Quote:
ANGEL: (re: werewolf he killed) Probably tried to control it for a while and just gave up. Thought he had to fight it alone, ended up with nothing worth fighting for.
...conviction again...Quote:
NINA: Don't tell me what you know. You didn't wake up and find out you're a monster.
Quote:
ANGEL: If you separate yourself from the ones you love, the monster wins.
Ep 4 - "Life of the Party" Okay, I admit that I don't have much to say about this one.
Ep 5 - "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco"Quote:
NUMBER 5: What can I say about a demon who killed the people that mattered most to me? I don't know. Can't remember.
ANGEL: Can't remember or don't care?
NUMBER 5 Do not misunderstand me. After my brothers were
killed, I tried to carry on, tried to help people. But after
a while, the phone stopped ringing. The people went away... until
one night when a man walked in. He said his company could use a
young man with my abilities. [...] I needed a job. They needed muscle. I knew that Wolfram & Hart was everything my brothers despised. But what did I care? Nothing mattered...
...loss of conviction The "demon stealing the heart of heroes." Also that the work isn't providing meaning.
Ep 6 - "Hellbound" Quote:
Pavayne: Reality bends to my will
...to conviction...
Ep 7 - "Lineage" Quote:
WESLEY
WESLEY: You're using the Staff of Devosynn to take Angel's will, make him your slave.
ROGER WYNDAM-PRICE: That creature is more dangerous to mankind than you realize.
WESLEY: You're wrong about him. He's not what you think.
ROGER WYNDAM-PRICE: He's a puppet. He always has been. To the Powers That Be, to Wolfram & Hart
Again with the lack of will/conviction. (And of course, Wesley who is the "hard decisions for the greater good" guy... kills someone...for Fred)
Ep 8 - "Destiny" Quote:
WILLIAM: More than that. She brought me into this world. Where I was meant to be. It's like... she's my destiny.
Quote:
ANGELUS:So let me explain to you how things are now. There's no belonging or deserving anymore. You can take what you want, have what you want... but nothing is yours.
Quote:
SPIKE: Come on, hero. Tell me more. Teach me what it means. And I'll tell you why you can't stand the bloody sight of me. [...] 'Cause every time you look at me you see all the dirty little things I've done, all the lives I've taken... because of you! Drusilla sired me... but you... you made me a monster.
There's that "monster" theme yet again. And of course destiny...purpose, reason, raison d'etre.
Ep 9 - "Harms Way" Quote:
SPIKE: All of it... won't matter.
HARMONY:Yeah—not mattering. I know that feeling well.
SPIKE: Oh, come on, Harm, you matter to someone.
HARMONY: I do?
SPIKE: Yeah. Girl tried to frame you, didn't she? Must have mattered to her. Everybody's talking about it.
HARMONY: You're right. That girl hated me. She wanted me dead. I matter.
Even stupid Harm needs validation for her existence, to matter. Even the stupid need a raison d'etre. . . a reason. (And note the foreshadow of someone hating you enough to be busy with the machinations behind your back)
[b]Ep 10 - "Soul Purpose" Quote:
ANGEL: It's not your destiny. It's mine.
SPIKE: Still can't accept it? It's pathetic, really. All your life's been a lie. Everything you've done—the lives you've saved, dreams of redemption—all that pain... all of it for nothing. 'Cause this was never about you.
What do you do when what you were fighting for. . .isn't what you were fighting for? Spike is in the same position in this episode. Spike was (as Lindsey accused) about "impressing the girl." That's a MASSIVE oversimplification. . . but it's the way Spike has outlined his world. He's always been "the fool for love." But... he doesn't have the girl. He didn't go after Buffy because if he did... then would what he did in Chosen still "matter"? Angel has defined himself by his destiny and Spike by his being the fool for love. . .and now both are floundering because their raison d'etre isn't their raison d'etre any more. What do you fight for when you've lost what you fight for? (a question posed all the way back in to "Conviction" and "Unleashed") Quote:
Lindsey: You've got a destiny—
SPIKE:Like the destiny that was supposed to be at the bottom of a cup of perpetual nothing?
Quote:
WESLEY: Must be hard adjusting to the new situation. Finally coming to grips with the truth... that you're irrelevant.
Quote:
FRED: I can't seem to find anything wrong with you. I mean...except that you're empty. There's nothing left. Just a shell.
...emptiness? lacking conviction? (Again)
Ep 11 - "Damage" Quote:
SPIKE: for a demon I never did think that much about the nature of evil. Just through myself in. Thought it was a party, I liked the rush, I liked the crunch. Never did look back at the victims.”
ANGEL: “I couldn’t take my eyes off them. I was only in it for the evil. That was everything to me, it was art. The destruction of a human being, days I woulda considered Dana a masterpiece.”
SPIKE: “What happens to her?”
ANGEL: “I don’t know, uh Andrew and the slayers took her. Didn’t trust us to help her.”
SPIKE: “Andrew double-crossed us? That’s a good move. Hope for the little ponce yet. Though the tingling in my forearms tells me she’s too far gone to help. She’s one of us now. She’s a monster.”
ANGEL: “She’s an innocent victim.”
SPIKE: “So were we, once upon a time.”
Even monsters were innocent once...like the original werewolf in Unleashed who lost everything to fight for, like Nina who "woke up a monster."
Ep 12 - "You're Welcome"Quote:
CORDELIA: Not only did you strike a deal with your worst enemy to protect your son, you let them rape the memories of your friends who trust you.
ANGEL: He was about to kill you, and himself. He was so torn up. I didn't have any other way to stop him. I did it to help him. He's happy now. And everythings fine here. We're doing good things.
CORDELIA: Don't give me that "everything is fine here" company line. I'm not buying it. [...] I naturally assumed you'd be lost without me, but this?
ANGEL: I am lost without you.
CORDELIA: You just forgot who you are.
ANGEL: Who am I? Remind me.
CORDELIA: Oh no. That's for you to figure out.
And again we're back to. . . what are you fighting for? What's your raison d'etre? What are you fighting for when what you're fighting for is gone? We're back, again, to a loss of conviction... or was there conviction if you were only fighting for "destiny?"
Quote:
SPIKE: I've been prancing around thinking I had a destiny. Love to drown my embarrassment...
What did Angel come up with "I beat the bad guys." Er... as conviction goes... it's not a really satisfactory answer because we come to...
Ep 13 - "Why We Fight" We have Angel on a mission, ostensibly on the right side. . .but without conviction. Quote:
PETRIE: You ever considered joining the war effort?
ANGEL: No.
Angel wasn't "interested" and is pretty much drafted (with crossbow, stakes, Initiative and chains.) Quote:
LAWSON: Those monsters butchered my crew {...}doesn't make me understand why we're working with them.
ANGEL: I've got 'em under control.
LAWSON: That's not the point. {...}They're monsters and I don't know why--
ANGEL: You don't need to know why. We've got a mission. {...}Isn't that the point?
LAWSON: There's a difference between orders and purpose. I didn't sign on because I needed directions. {...}Evil is spreading, sir. And not just over there. It's here and it killed my crew, and we've got to stop. {..} I can even handle dying if I know if it's for a greater purpose.
Quote:
LAWSON:(present) I guess now isn't the time to argue semantics. Did you care about any of it? The misson? The men?
Why did they do what they do? Angel may be back on the mission, but does Angel have conviction??? (Somehow "because I beat the bad guys" falls somewhat short. And the fact that the "good guys" are doing something not so different from the "bad guys" Initiative vs. Nazi's is also probably quite deliberate as it is all connected to slipery slopes and all that.) Quote:
LAWSON: You don't win a war by doing whatever it takes. You win it by doing what's right.
Okaaaayyyy... so this is an incredibly naive statement. But the question is, does ME mean it to be right. ME can be terribly lecturey. I don't know, if ME is serious, but it is one of the central themes of the season. Are you doing what you're doing. . . with conviction. Lawson, in 1943, was willing to do whatever it took, to complete the MISSION. But. . .he lost the conviction in the process (sort of the innocent/the good becoming the monster. Innocents can become monsters. (as has also been a repeating theme of the season) especially... if they lose conviction (which, of course, Lawson literally does (in keeping with ME's tendency toward not seeing characters as characters but as what they REPRESENT. Lawson... became a monster. He completed the mission (even post vamping) but, then he was ready to eat the crew. Quote:
ANGEL: They're still your men.
LAWSON: But they aren't the mission, are they?
And, harkening back to "Just Rewards" (and... strangely... Seeing Red... but then DeKnight wrote both) Lawson brings out Spike's lines of not being one thing or the other. . . which occured when Spike violated HIS raison d'etre... when he hurt what he loved (which was always Spike's raison d'etre). Quote:
LAWSON: It sounded like a fair shake. One person damned to make room for future generations
(And what's interesting is that this is actually a reversal of what happened last year with Connor... and is probably why Angel is also referring to Lawson as "son" in the script. The killing of Lawson is, in fact, quite similar to the killing of Connor last year. Except Angel's choices were different. He chose to damn himself and others, to save Connor) Quote:
LAWSON: We all need a reason to live, even if we're already dead. Mom, apple pie, the stars and stripes, that was good enough for me until I met you. Then I had this whole "creature of the night" thing. And I embraced it. I did all the terrible things a monster does.{...} And through it all, I felt nothing.
Lawson, kept with the mission, even when the mission changed... but it was hollow because he had no conviction.Quote:
SPIKE: What was he looking for?
ANGEL: A reason
Conviction.
And in our continuing repetition of themes... gee, lookee, after having mentioned how one can be a puppet[u]... we get a puppet episode. A soon we have everything go kaboom, with Fred dying leaving a [u]shell. . .a shell that then causes this innocent to become a monster. And AGAIN they are faced with the same questions of one person verus the many, when is it mercy, mission, connection (sort of like Lawson their your men... but not the mission? ... or are they)
Anyway, "Why We Fight" is a very arc related stand alone. The only ep I seriously have trouble with seeing how it fits in is "Life of the Party"... which probably makes sense because Lorne is the character they've had THE most problem working into the season
It's funny, I saw someone list this ep as a stand alone, and what surprised me was that I haven't been thinking of it as a stand alone at all. Yes, it IS a stand alone, but ever since we found out the spoilers for Ep 15, I have considered this ep to be pretty much of the season theme. Heck, I've seen that really, ME has been pretty darn arc oriented all along. Or maybe not arc so much as repetition and pondering of a limited number of themes.
Ep 1 - "Conviction" Quote:
HAUSER: You really think you can solve the problem? Come into Wolfram and Hart and make everything right? Turn night into glorious day? You pathetic little fairy.
ANGEL: I'm not little.
HAUSER: That's exactly what you are. You're minuscule. A dust mote on the shelf of that great institution. Now, you think I'm just a trigger-happy jerk who follows orders, but I am something you will never be. I'm pure. I believe in evil. You and your friends, you're conflicted. You're confused. We're not. That is why you are gonna lose, because we possess the most powerful thing in the world...conviction.
ANGEL: There is one thing more powerful than conviction. Mercy.
It's all right there in the title and in the episode. Angel is accused of lacking "conviction" and the question of "coviction"/belief vs. mercy is set up. After Connor and Cordy and all the shit that went down, Angel is unsure what he's fighting for. (And, note, that Gunn gets his brain implant. Why? Last year he was complaining about not really serving much of a purpose in the group. . .well, except muscle. Gunn's looking for a new purpose)
Ep 2 - "Just Rewards" Quote:
HAINSLEY: You're a ghost. Well, close enough, anyway. That's just a horrible way to be. You're not here, you're not there, just lost, somewhere in the middle. And you can't fight against it. You can't fix it. Hell, you can't even lift a finger 'cause you simply don't have any. I can give you back what's been taken from you—freedom, power of choice. I can put your destiny back in your own flesh-and-bone hands.
Quote:
FRED: I mean, I know he's already dead, but... he'd be gone-dead. Forever. It just doesn't seem right.
WESLEY: I agree, but neither is leaving him here, trapped between realms, with no control over his fate, not able to touch anything, affect anything. Unable to fight. Letting him cross over seems the most merciful thing—
Quote:
SPIKE: I can't live like this, Angel. Being useless. Being nothing.
Again we visited the "not one thing or another," searching for a purpose, the question of mercy(should Spike be killed? Is that mercy?) And we get the whole necromancer displacing one spirit so that a demon can inhabit the corpse.
Ep 3 - "Unleashed" A new theme is added (or is it just a variation on the theme?) And this theme has been repeated a LOT. The Monster vs the Innocent. Quote:
ANGEL: (re: werewolf he killed) Probably tried to control it for a while and just gave up. Thought he had to fight it alone, ended up with nothing worth fighting for.
...conviction again...Quote:
NINA: Don't tell me what you know. You didn't wake up and find out you're a monster.
Quote:
ANGEL: If you separate yourself from the ones you love, the monster wins.
Ep 4 - "Life of the Party" Okay, I admit that I don't have much to say about this one.
Ep 5 - "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco"Quote:
NUMBER 5: What can I say about a demon who killed the people that mattered most to me? I don't know. Can't remember.
ANGEL: Can't remember or don't care?
NUMBER 5 Do not misunderstand me. After my brothers were
killed, I tried to carry on, tried to help people. But after
a while, the phone stopped ringing. The people went away... until
one night when a man walked in. He said his company could use a
young man with my abilities. [...] I needed a job. They needed muscle. I knew that Wolfram & Hart was everything my brothers despised. But what did I care? Nothing mattered...
...loss of conviction The "demon stealing the heart of heroes." Also that the work isn't providing meaning.
Ep 6 - "Hellbound" Quote:
Pavayne: Reality bends to my will
...to conviction...
Ep 7 - "Lineage" Quote:
WESLEY
WESLEY: You're using the Staff of Devosynn to take Angel's will, make him your slave.
ROGER WYNDAM-PRICE: That creature is more dangerous to mankind than you realize.
WESLEY: You're wrong about him. He's not what you think.
ROGER WYNDAM-PRICE: He's a puppet. He always has been. To the Powers That Be, to Wolfram & Hart
Again with the lack of will/conviction. (And of course, Wesley who is the "hard decisions for the greater good" guy... kills someone...for Fred)
Ep 8 - "Destiny" Quote:
WILLIAM: More than that. She brought me into this world. Where I was meant to be. It's like... she's my destiny.
Quote:
ANGELUS:So let me explain to you how things are now. There's no belonging or deserving anymore. You can take what you want, have what you want... but nothing is yours.
Quote:
SPIKE: Come on, hero. Tell me more. Teach me what it means. And I'll tell you why you can't stand the bloody sight of me. [...] 'Cause every time you look at me you see all the dirty little things I've done, all the lives I've taken... because of you! Drusilla sired me... but you... you made me a monster.
There's that "monster" theme yet again. And of course destiny...purpose, reason, raison d'etre.
Ep 9 - "Harms Way" Quote:
SPIKE: All of it... won't matter.
HARMONY:Yeah—not mattering. I know that feeling well.
SPIKE: Oh, come on, Harm, you matter to someone.
HARMONY: I do?
SPIKE: Yeah. Girl tried to frame you, didn't she? Must have mattered to her. Everybody's talking about it.
HARMONY: You're right. That girl hated me. She wanted me dead. I matter.
Even stupid Harm needs validation for her existence, to matter. Even the stupid need a raison d'etre. . . a reason. (And note the foreshadow of someone hating you enough to be busy with the machinations behind your back)
[b]Ep 10 - "Soul Purpose" Quote:
ANGEL: It's not your destiny. It's mine.
SPIKE: Still can't accept it? It's pathetic, really. All your life's been a lie. Everything you've done—the lives you've saved, dreams of redemption—all that pain... all of it for nothing. 'Cause this was never about you.
What do you do when what you were fighting for. . .isn't what you were fighting for? Spike is in the same position in this episode. Spike was (as Lindsey accused) about "impressing the girl." That's a MASSIVE oversimplification. . . but it's the way Spike has outlined his world. He's always been "the fool for love." But... he doesn't have the girl. He didn't go after Buffy because if he did... then would what he did in Chosen still "matter"? Angel has defined himself by his destiny and Spike by his being the fool for love. . .and now both are floundering because their raison d'etre isn't their raison d'etre any more. What do you fight for when you've lost what you fight for? (a question posed all the way back in to "Conviction" and "Unleashed") Quote:
Lindsey: You've got a destiny—
SPIKE:Like the destiny that was supposed to be at the bottom of a cup of perpetual nothing?
Quote:
WESLEY: Must be hard adjusting to the new situation. Finally coming to grips with the truth... that you're irrelevant.
Quote:
FRED: I can't seem to find anything wrong with you. I mean...except that you're empty. There's nothing left. Just a shell.
...emptiness? lacking conviction? (Again)
Ep 11 - "Damage" Quote:
SPIKE: for a demon I never did think that much about the nature of evil. Just through myself in. Thought it was a party, I liked the rush, I liked the crunch. Never did look back at the victims.”
ANGEL: “I couldn’t take my eyes off them. I was only in it for the evil. That was everything to me, it was art. The destruction of a human being, days I woulda considered Dana a masterpiece.”
SPIKE: “What happens to her?”
ANGEL: “I don’t know, uh Andrew and the slayers took her. Didn’t trust us to help her.”
SPIKE: “Andrew double-crossed us? That’s a good move. Hope for the little ponce yet. Though the tingling in my forearms tells me she’s too far gone to help. She’s one of us now. She’s a monster.”
ANGEL: “She’s an innocent victim.”
SPIKE: “So were we, once upon a time.”
Even monsters were innocent once...like the original werewolf in Unleashed who lost everything to fight for, like Nina who "woke up a monster."
Ep 12 - "You're Welcome"Quote:
CORDELIA: Not only did you strike a deal with your worst enemy to protect your son, you let them rape the memories of your friends who trust you.
ANGEL: He was about to kill you, and himself. He was so torn up. I didn't have any other way to stop him. I did it to help him. He's happy now. And everythings fine here. We're doing good things.
CORDELIA: Don't give me that "everything is fine here" company line. I'm not buying it. [...] I naturally assumed you'd be lost without me, but this?
ANGEL: I am lost without you.
CORDELIA: You just forgot who you are.
ANGEL: Who am I? Remind me.
CORDELIA: Oh no. That's for you to figure out.
And again we're back to. . . what are you fighting for? What's your raison d'etre? What are you fighting for when what you're fighting for is gone? We're back, again, to a loss of conviction... or was there conviction if you were only fighting for "destiny?"
Quote:
SPIKE: I've been prancing around thinking I had a destiny. Love to drown my embarrassment...
What did Angel come up with "I beat the bad guys." Er... as conviction goes... it's not a really satisfactory answer because we come to...
Ep 13 - "Why We Fight" We have Angel on a mission, ostensibly on the right side. . .but without conviction. Quote:
PETRIE: You ever considered joining the war effort?
ANGEL: No.
Angel wasn't "interested" and is pretty much drafted (with crossbow, stakes, Initiative and chains.) Quote:
LAWSON: Those monsters butchered my crew {...}doesn't make me understand why we're working with them.
ANGEL: I've got 'em under control.
LAWSON: That's not the point. {...}They're monsters and I don't know why--
ANGEL: You don't need to know why. We've got a mission. {...}Isn't that the point?
LAWSON: There's a difference between orders and purpose. I didn't sign on because I needed directions. {...}Evil is spreading, sir. And not just over there. It's here and it killed my crew, and we've got to stop. {..} I can even handle dying if I know if it's for a greater purpose.
Quote:
LAWSON:(present) I guess now isn't the time to argue semantics. Did you care about any of it? The misson? The men?
Why did they do what they do? Angel may be back on the mission, but does Angel have conviction??? (Somehow "because I beat the bad guys" falls somewhat short. And the fact that the "good guys" are doing something not so different from the "bad guys" Initiative vs. Nazi's is also probably quite deliberate as it is all connected to slipery slopes and all that.) Quote:
LAWSON: You don't win a war by doing whatever it takes. You win it by doing what's right.
Okaaaayyyy... so this is an incredibly naive statement. But the question is, does ME mean it to be right. ME can be terribly lecturey. I don't know, if ME is serious, but it is one of the central themes of the season. Are you doing what you're doing. . . with conviction. Lawson, in 1943, was willing to do whatever it took, to complete the MISSION. But. . .he lost the conviction in the process (sort of the innocent/the good becoming the monster. Innocents can become monsters. (as has also been a repeating theme of the season) especially... if they lose conviction (which, of course, Lawson literally does (in keeping with ME's tendency toward not seeing characters as characters but as what they REPRESENT. Lawson... became a monster. He completed the mission (even post vamping) but, then he was ready to eat the crew. Quote:
ANGEL: They're still your men.
LAWSON: But they aren't the mission, are they?
And, harkening back to "Just Rewards" (and... strangely... Seeing Red... but then DeKnight wrote both) Lawson brings out Spike's lines of not being one thing or the other. . . which occured when Spike violated HIS raison d'etre... when he hurt what he loved (which was always Spike's raison d'etre). Quote:
LAWSON: It sounded like a fair shake. One person damned to make room for future generations
(And what's interesting is that this is actually a reversal of what happened last year with Connor... and is probably why Angel is also referring to Lawson as "son" in the script. The killing of Lawson is, in fact, quite similar to the killing of Connor last year. Except Angel's choices were different. He chose to damn himself and others, to save Connor) Quote:
LAWSON: We all need a reason to live, even if we're already dead. Mom, apple pie, the stars and stripes, that was good enough for me until I met you. Then I had this whole "creature of the night" thing. And I embraced it. I did all the terrible things a monster does.{...} And through it all, I felt nothing.
Lawson, kept with the mission, even when the mission changed... but it was hollow because he had no conviction.Quote:
SPIKE: What was he looking for?
ANGEL: A reason
Conviction.
And in our continuing repetition of themes... gee, lookee, after having mentioned how one can be a puppet[u]... we get a puppet episode. A soon we have everything go kaboom, with Fred dying leaving a [u]shell. . .a shell that then causes this innocent to become a monster. And AGAIN they are faced with the same questions of one person verus the many, when is it mercy, mission, connection (sort of like Lawson their your men... but not the mission? ... or are they)
Anyway, "Why We Fight" is a very arc related stand alone. The only ep I seriously have trouble with seeing how it fits in is "Life of the Party"... which probably makes sense because Lorne is the character they've had THE most problem working into the season
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
We got LOTP this week and I got the following
Date: 2004-02-13 03:58 am (UTC)Wes and Fred, setting up the triangle more being one of the episode functions::buries head in hands:: - so much worse than I expected.
I actually felt ill in the lab scene. It really makes Wes come over as creepy and Ew, and I Love Wes; it shouldn't have this effect on me. But it did. The old standard spell/mystical drunkenness ploy at playing with a couple - Uh uh, Nope. AD seems to have to overplay it as he's not getting anything back from AA, and it's making him Not Appealing, even to this Wes lover. How the hell the Illyria arc is going to work with this for raw materials, I don't know. But I'm not exactly filled with confidence. If there's no oomf, no sparks with the old drunken dancing trick - which they're clearly trying for - how the hell they think they'll get some with a dead, blue Fred and a Wes that's following the cold, dead shell of his lady love - a lady loveship that's already come across as mega creepy when she's alive and well. I mean, it's not like it's a love hate thing, where both or one party might make the denials but the chemistry is undeniable (like Wilah), they've tried every trick in the writing book - or will - and it's not just not there, Wes and Fred are like Anti-Chemistry. Which is not promising for the main arc during renewals. Or for the WB being amenable to keeping AA, certainly as leading lady I reckon.
Re: We got LOTP this week and I got the following
Date: 2004-02-13 10:04 am (UTC)*spoilers ahoy!!!*
And I think they're making a mistake by having Fred start to return his affections before the whole Illyria thing... because having Wes willingly follow Illyria would make so much more sense if his obsessive love was unrequited while Fred was still herself, but is being returned in some way, or at least acknowledged and welcomed, after she's been possessed.
Re: We got LOTP this week and I got the following
Date: 2004-02-13 10:37 am (UTC)It's just a shame they have Anti-Chemistry.