New essay: Cold Comparisons

I have a new essay up at the Hugo Book Club Blog: Cold Comparisons, in which I discuss reactions to Tom Godwin's famous story "Cold Equations". Check it out!

The Problems with Angel, Part 3: Cordelia

And so I've reached the last of my three-part look back at the problems I've identified with Angel. Sadly, it means I have to discuss the series' biggest problem: Cordelia Chase.

Cordelia (played by Charisma Carpenter) was inherited by Angel from the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Cordelia was introduced as a shallow, vain and rather ditzy teenager who had no particular skillset suited for battling the forces of evil; Cordelia's greatest contribution to Buffy's struggle was that she both owned and drove a car.

Yet despite that, even in the first three seasons Cordelia demonstrated certain hidden depths. She could be quite loyal to the others and willing to help, even when she had precious little to contribute. Once she joined the cast of Angel, however, her character altered significantly - and for the better.

When Cordelia went to work for Angel in "City of" (1x1) she insisted she was only taking the secretarial job "until my inevitable stardom takes effect." She came to Los Angeles hoping to become an actress and that remained a part of her background up until "Birthday" (3x11). But even by the end of the first season, she was quite a different person.

It was a gradual shift; Cordelia commented on it herself in "Bachelor Party" (1x7) when she realized how Angel and Doyle's heroism had affected how she felt about men: "All of a sudden rich and handsome isn't enough for me; now I expect a guy to be all brave and interesting! And it's your fault! Both of you!" Soon after, she inherited Doyle's visions in "Parting Gifts" (1x10), which made her indispensable to Angel's mission as she would guide him against the forces of evil. "You can't fire me, I'm vision girl," Cordelia taunted him in "Untouched" (2x4).

The visions were a terrific way to transform Cordelia into a more selfless, heroic person. She retained her blunt manner of speech, love of fine clothes and dreams of stardom, but she was no longer working for Angel just to collect a paycheck; all of this was made clear in "To Shanshu in L.A." (1x22), when Cordelia loses control of the visions and is exposed an endless series of images where people are in pain. After long hours of suffering, unable to do more than scream or cry, Cordelia is saved by Angel and Wesley; her first words when she revives? "Angel? I saw them all. There's so much pain. ...We have to help them."

During season 2 when Angel turned away from his path to pursue vengeance on Wolfram & Hart, Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn continued to do his work. When Angel finally returned to the group in "Epiphany" (2x16), Wesley put Angel in his place, explaining how much Cordelia had changed. "You don't know her at all. For months now you haven't cared to, otherwise you might have realized that our Cordelia has become a very solitary girl. She's not the vain, carefree creature she once was... Well, certainly not carefree. It's the visions, you see. The visions that were meant to guide you. You could turn away from them - she doesn't have that luxury. She knows and experiences the pain in this city, and because of who she is, she feels compelled to do something about it. It's left her little time for anything else. You'd have known that - if you hadn't had you head firmly up your... place that isn't on top of your neck."

It also helped that Cordelia's visions were increasingly causing her great pain. The visions had been painful from the first episode of the series, but it became a plot point late in season 2 that Cordelia was finding it harder to keep receiving the visions; she was not only suffering more mental trauma from the terrifying images she saw, but also developing health problems.

This brings us to season 3, where Cordelia's character began to slowly derail - but it was only clear in retrospect that the problems began there. Certainly Angel fandom was up in arms about Cordelia that year and not in a positive way. From the outset, it became clear that Cordelia was being set up as a love interest for Angel. Some fans liked that idea; some fans didn't. But a very vocal segment of fandom was upset because of how drastically Cordelia was changing.

Cordelia had a wonderful ability to deliver sarcastic put-downs without becoming unlikable herself. But this aspect of her character started to ebb away, along with her interests in money and stardom; then to, her relationship with the Grosalugg in the latter half of season 3 was brought up mainly to write the Grosalugg out for good - to put Cordelia past admiring men for their good looks. Cordelia was now Angel's greatest confidante, the one who would share perhaps one heartwarming/inspirational speech with Angel each episode. Fans dubbed this change, "Saint Cordelia."

"Saint Cordelia" became such a meme in fandom that even the creators got wind of it and referenced it in "Calvary" (4x12). Fans used the nickname principally to display their displeasure with Cordelia's personality change, but many also disliked the attempt to pair her up with Angel - mainly because the changes seemed to have occurred in order to correct any 'imperfections' in Cordelia, to render her 'worthy' of being the lead character's love interest.

And yes, season 3 laid it on pretty thick; in "That Vision Thing" (3x2), Cordelia is so noble she refuses to give up the visions even as Wolfram & Hart are using them to inflict physical damage on her. In "Birthday" she's given the chance to alter her past to remove the visions from her and become a famous star, but decides she'd rather keep the visions and help Angel. In the latter part of season 3, while she's dating the Groosalugg, nearly every romantic moment with Groo is undermined by a bit where she worries about Angel or says something which indicates to Groo that she cares more about Angel than him.

The circle the characters of Angel inhabited became significantly smaller in season 3. Fred had no life outside of helping Angel Investigations, to the point where she didn't want her family to know where she was (3x5); Gunn formally broke ties with his gang in "That Old Gang of Mine" (3x3), removing his character's independence; Lorne lost his club and moved into the Hyperion Hotel in "Dad" (3x10); Wesley and Cordelia had social lives and interests outside of Angel Investigations prior to season 3 - but by mid-season they had no lives beyond what went on in the offices of Angel Investigations.

Shrinking Angel's universe couldn't help but feel incestuous; creating love triangles among the lead characters (first, Gunn-Fred-Wesley; later, Angel-Cordelia-Connor) made the world feel smaller. Likewise the growing emphasis on storyarcs and de-emphasis on 'case-of-the-week' episodes. Indeed, the firm of Angel Investigations had fewer and fewer clients in season 3; the idea that Angel and his friends were running a business became less and less important, to the extent that one interesting idea - Wolfram & Hart trying to tie up Angel by using real world law - was dismissed for good in the same episode where it was brought up (3x4).

This sense of smallness became a huge problem in season 4, where virtually all of the drama of the season was due to events in the characters' personal lives. One senses the creators were themselves aghast what they had wrought; at various points the characters voiced complaints about the season's arc: "I spent most of this year trapped in what I can only describe as a turgid supernatural soap opera," Gunn complained in "Players" (4x16). And after Wesley explained Connor's backstory to Faith in "Salvage" (4x13) Faith quipped, "Can I just ask: what the hell are you people doing?" Wesley meekly answered, "Leading... complicated lives."

In some sense, the events of "Birthday" - where Cordelia became half-demon - marked the end of the Cordelia who fans were familiar with. After that episode her powers changed on an episode-to-episode basis and she was defined mostly by her relationships with the Groosalugg and Angel - to the point that afer going on vacation in "Couplet" (3x14), she had no more significant friendship moments with Wesley for the rest of season 3 or entirety of season 4. And the Cordelia-Wesley friendship had been a hallmark of the program's first 2.5 years! But with Cordelia and Wesley each tied up in separate love triangles, the creators seemed to forget they had a relationship dynamic of their own.

In another sense, Cordelia didn't appear at all in season 4; first she's a 'higher power' (4x1), then she's amnesiac (4x3), then she isolates herself from the group (4x6), then she's revealed to be the season's 'big bad' (4x12), then she falls into a coma (4x17). The storyarc involving Cordelia's transformation into a 'big bad' is definitely a problematic one - there was a lot of behind-the-scenes trouble, notably that Charisma Carpenter's pregnancy changed the plot so that Cordelia was being possessed by the actual big bad, Jasmine.

Frankly, assigning all of the evil Cordelia did to the character of Jasmine was an immense relief to me. I liked Cordelia and it had been difficult to watch her become a sneering, bloodthirsty villain. Jasmine's arrival in "Inside Out" (4x17) was kind of a relief to me because it meant Cordelia could escape from the plot with some of her dignity intact (although apparently this was all much less-fun for Charisma Carpenter, who was basically booted off the show as 'punishment' for getting pregnant).

But the worst aspect of the evil Cordelia plot came about during "Inside Out" in one of the most ill-advised passages in the entire series. It's during that episode that the character Skip delves into a lengthy explanation of how Jasmine had orchestrated her plot. I'm sure the creators considered it a lot of very clever work - tying together events from the first four seasons to make Jasmine appear to be the series' grandest villain, a plot which could appear to have been set in motion all the way back in "City Of". Here is that ill-advised conversation:

Angel: "It doesn't make sense. Cordy was made a higher being because she proved herself to the Powers by bearing their visions. This thing couldn't have--"
Wesley: "--Unless it maneuvered her to inherit the visions in the first place."
Skip: "Uh, oh. Better step on it. The rubes are catching up."
Angel: "It wasn't just her ascension. Everything that's happened to Cordy in the past few years-- all of it—- was planned."
Skip: "You really think it stops with her, amigo? You have any concept of how many lines have to intersect in order for a thing like this to play out? How many events have to be nudged in just the right direction? Leaving Pylea. Your sister. Opening the wrong book. Sleeping with the enemy. Gosh, I love a story with scope."
Gunn: "No way. We make our own choices."
Skip: "Yeah, sure. Cheese sandwich here, uh, when to floss. But the big stuff, like two vampires squeezing out a kid?"
Angel: "Connor."
Wesley: "An impossible birth to make one possible."
Skip: "That's what the kid was designed for."
Lorne: "To sleep with mother love?"
Angel: "To create a vessel."
Skip: "Look out. The monkey's thinking again."

There are two huge problems with the claims Skip made:

1. Jasmine's supposedly great master plan had already been undermined twice - first when Angelus killed the Beast in "Salvage" and again when Willow restored Angel's soul in "Orpheus" (4x15).
2. The idea that the characters on Angel did not possess free will is fundamentally contrary to the premise of the series - the whole notion of Angel seeking redemption for himself and others, to say nothing of whether his 'pivotal role' in the Apocalypse is to played on the side of good or evil.

The creators fortunately forgot they'd written this as soon as it was aired, I guess? Because the series got back on track; much later in the program during "Power Play" (5x21), Angel himself summed up the series' actual philosophy: "The powerful control everything... except our will to choose. Look, Lindsey's a pathetic halfwit, but he was right about one thing: heroes don't accept the way the world is."

So many of the decisions made around Cordelia in seasons 3 & 4 were bad calls - not only her transformation into a villain, but altering her powers (for no particular purpose other than to write away the subplot about the visions harming her), altering her goals and involving her in in what is the Buffyverse's single least-beloved relationship (with Connor - no mean feat, considering how many Buffy-Riley & Willow-Kennedy haters there are) all added up to a pretty dismal fate for what had been one of the series' best characters. She was legitimately the second lead of the series... only to be written out.

I haven't named any of the Angel creators thus far (other than executive producer Joss Whedon) but I definitely need to single out writer David Fury, who wrote "You're Welcome" (5x12). "You're Welcome" was an amazing feat of writing as it not only gave Cordelia a great send-off but at the same time washed away all of the ill will which season 4 in particular had created. In just one episode, everyone who had liked Cordelia in the past was instantly reminded of why she had been such a beloved character. And considering it was her farewell to the series, it really needed to be done.

These, then, are the three biggest problems I've noticed with Angel. But along the way I've tried to comment on parts of the series which did work; and I do think most of the series still holds up. Heck, season 4 was by far my least-favourite season, but it still contains a number of episodes that I truly enjoy and season 5 turned out to be my favourite season of the program.

The Problems with Angel, Part 2: Connor

So... Connor.

Connor (played by Vincent Kartheiser) was the son of the titular protagonist of Angel. The character was born as an infant in "Lullaby" (3x9), disappeared in "Sleep Tight" (3x16), then returned (as Kartheiser) in the closing seconds of "The Price" (3x19). Connor was promoted to a spot as a lead cast member as of "Deep Down" (4x1) but was eliminated from the cast at the end of the season (4x22). Subsequently he returned for two guest appearances in the 5th season (5x18 & 5x22).

I was involved in the online fan community at the time "The Price" aired and I monitored reactions from fans throughout the character's appearances. Connor was not well-loved. Well, that is, Connor the baby was absolutely adored by Angel fandom. But when people talk about Connor, they usually mean the version who debuted in "The Price".

There was a tradition going back to Buffy the Vampire Slayer that the creative team wanted at least one recurring character who would butt heads with the program's hero. For most of her time on Buffy, Cordelia Chase (played by Charisma Carpenter) was present principally to mock Buffy and her friends and predict certain doom for everyone. She was like C-3PO, if that comparison makes sense to you.

James Marsters has said that one of the reasons his character Spike was promoted to a leading role on Buffy was to fill the void left when Cordelia joined the cast of Angel. Yet at the same time, Cordelia quickly evolved on Angel - no longer the doomsayer, she quickly became a staunch ally who would criticize the show's hero in private, but relentlessly defend him before others. Cordelia had undergone character development, so Angel needed its own critic.

Initially that unwelcome responsibility fell upon Kate Lockley (played by Elisabeth Rohm), who was present partially to serve as a love interest to Angel, but also as someone to be an uneasy ally, frequently suspicious of him. I found Kate to be a very compelling character, one who had a valid viewpoint. And yet, a lot of fans did not (and still do not) like her because she would oppose Angel almost reflexively. Who would have thought that a character who says in her debut appearance (1x2) that she has "trust issues" would go on to demonstrate that she has trust issues?!

Kate departed in "Epiphany" (2x16), mainly because Rohm had joined the cast of Law & Order. Apparently if she had been available, Kate would have become Holtz's chief lieutenant in season 3, rather than the new character Justine. I don't know if that means the creators would have made Kate slit Wesley's throat, but that would have certainly cemented Kate as the most disliked person on Angel. But instead, the single most problematic character became Angel's own son, Connor.

Connor seems to have been made a regular principally to be the critic, the doomsayer, the one who would give Angel a hard time. Unlike Kate, whose interactions contained an element of sexual tension, Connor would complicate Angel's life because of their father-son relationship (or lack thereof). A son who disobeys and talks back to his father - that's a good basis for some character conflict, and Angel ran on character conflict like it was gasoline.

Why didn't it work?

In the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the character of Dr. David Marcus is introduced. He's a scientist who is deeply critical of Starfleet (which he refers to as 'the military') and looks down on the franchise's hero, James T. Kirk. As the film progresses, the audience learns David is Kirk's son, raised by his mother Carol away from his father's influence. At the end of the film, after seeing his father's grief at the death of his friend Spock, David consoles Kirk and reveals he knows Kirk is his father - and he's proud to be Kirk's son.

There are some helpful comparisons to be drawn between David Marcus and Connor; both are the sons of the series' lead protagonist; both were raised outside of their father's influence; both are sharply critical of their father. And just as Angel fandom had some trouble accepting Connor, there were a lot of Star Trek fans in 1982 who weren't quite sure how to feel about David. One fan observed that although David was not an especially likeable character on his own merits, they made allowances for his behaviour based solely on who his father was. That is, David inherited some of the affection fans had for his father.

I think it also helped that David's last significant scene in the film was that where he humbled himself and hugged his father. There is simply no similar scene for Connor between "The Price" and "Home" (4x22). At various times during that interval, Angel lectures Connor. At various times he fights and defeats Connor. Yet Connor remains unchanged - even growing more unhinged as the series progresses.

The fundamental problem with Connor as a character who criticizes Angel is that we in the audience are meant to take him seriously. Connor wasn't simply taunting or teasing Angel in the manner of Cordelia & Spike on Buffy; he wasn't merely disagreeing or threatening Angel as Kate had on various occasions; he attempted to murder Angel (3x20), then followed it up by imprisoning his father on the floor of the ocean (3x22).

Allowances for Connor's behaviour can be made because, as was frequently mentioned, he was raised in a 'Hell dimension' - raised by Angel's nemesis Holtz, a man whose family was brutally killed by Angelus. Holtz had a legitimate quarrel with Angelus and used Connor as a means to hurt Angel - realizing that because of Angel's human soul, he could be made to feel deep emotional pain. After raising Connor as his own son, Holtz arranged to have himself murdered and to frame Angel for the act, ensuring Connor would forever hate his father (3x21).

So yes, Connor was a victim - you could even call him 'brainwashed' by Holtz. But that, unfortunately, eliminates him as a viable critic. How can any of Connor's criticisms of Angel be taken as valid when he is fundamentally incapable of sound judgement? In the first half of season 4, there is a sense that the creators wanted to set up Connor as an 'alternative viewpoint' to that of Angel; certainly when Connor invites the amnesiac Cordelia to live with him instead of Angel in "Slouching Toward Bethlehem" (4x4) it places Connor as a rival to Angel.

But Connor didn't change. During "Soulless" (4x11) it becomes clear that he remained a victim of Holtz's brainwashing. How were we in the audience meant to consider Connor's viewpoint when he seemed barely able to support his own views?

Fissures began to form. Starting with "Salvage" (4x13), the criticisms fans had been making about Connor online seemed to be referenced on the show itself. In that episode, Faith makes a guest appearance and both verbally and physically disciplines Connor when he refuses to follow her orders. This continues into "Orpheus" (4x15), where after Faith gives Connor a thorough thrashing, Gunn remarks, "I just wish I could've seen you kicking the crap out of junior, here." Faith agrees. "It was pretty funny."

At the time "Orpheus" aired I was amused to see the program acknowledge how disliked Connor was by having the characters verbalize their own dislike of Connor. But in retrospect, it's not a good sign when a television show gives up on one of its main characters - and that's what was going on with Connor. A few episodes later in "Sacrifice" (4x20), there was a brief scene where Angel beat up Connor. It was at least the third time that season that viewers had seen Angel defeat his son in a fight, but that one stood out to me because the friends I was watching Angel with thought that scene was hysterical; unlike the previous two fights (4x1 & 4x6), Angel and Connor's fight went on mostly off-camera, so the sudden appearance of Connor's unconscious body, thrown on the hood of a car, provoked laughter from my friends. They hated Connor.

I wanted to like Connor; it's the same principle Star Trek fans struggled with for David Marcus. Although I found Connor to be a pretty obnoxious character with no real redeeming qualities, I did like Angel, so I wanted to like Connor. If only the show would meet me halfway! But the creators had written a deeply stubborn character who refused to grow, learn or change. The only ways in which he did change were not for the better - as season 4 progressed, he turned out to be a willing accomplice to the season's 'big bad', Jasmine. In the finale, he fought Angel yet again, then had his memories altered.

The attitude of my friends to Connor's fate in "Home" was good riddance. They were happy to move on. But for me, as a fan of a television program which is thematically about redemption, I wasn't as willing to give up on Connor. And happily, once he stopped being a series regular the creators were at least ready to meet fans halfway (also, season 5 was their last opportunity to handle any of the characters). In season 5 Connor returned in two episodes; his memories were restored in "Origin", which was confirmed in "Not Fade Away", yet Connor has no particular angst about his fate - for the first time, he understands that Angel cares about him and changed his memories in an attempt to help him. Without being asked to, he fights at his father's side for the battle against Hamilton. Connor is ready to participate in the final fight against the armies of the Senior Partners, but Angel asks him to stay out of it. "But they'll destroy you," Connor protests. "As long as you're alive, they can't," Angel answers. There are no further complaints or protests. Connor and Angel are finally at peace with each other.

There was a lot of wasted potential in Connor; for one thing, the series never did get around to explain what the heck he was. He was the son of two vampires - a "miracle child". The best theory is that Connor's soul was the result of Angel winning the trial for Darla's life in "The Trial" (2x9); in that episode, Angel won Darla a second chance at life, only to learn because she had already been resurrected the second chance couldn't be used to save her again; Connor's life, body & soul, is the result of Angel's victory in "The Trial".

Okay, but why did Connor have superhuman strength and tracking abilities? He seemed at times to have all the powers of a vampire but in a human form. At one time, Angel wondered if the prophecies about his own role in the Apocalypse were actually referring to Connor - that Angel's destiny was to train Connor to play that oft-referenced 'pivotal role' in the Apocalypse.

There was so much more that could have been done with Connor on Angel - but the program mostly reduced him to a whiny brat who would typically insult Angel then get punched in the face. It was not much fun to watch back when it first aired. Still, at least the character was redeemed in season 5. And heck, Connor isn't my biggest problem with Angel...

Tomorrow: Cordelia.

The Problems with Angel, Part 1: Fred & Gunn

Angel was a television program which aired on the WB network from 1999-2004. It was a spin-off from the program Buffy the Vampire Slayer and enjoyed 5 seasons. I quite liked Angel during its original television run and frankly, since 2004 I haven't found any network programs which have sustained my interest in the way Angel did; it seems to be my last favourite network show.

It's been so long since the series first aired that a new generation is mostly unaware of the program and it's been interesting for me to see Youtube reaction videos by people discovering the series for the first time. In watching their reactions I've been able to find a way to articulate what were some of my problems with the series. And so, while I do like Angel quite a bit, I want to highlight three of the problems I had with the program. We'll start with Fred & Gunn.

Both Fred and Gunn were introduced near the end of a season of Angel, then became a regular at the start of the subsequent season. Charles Gunn (played by J. August Richards) was introduced in "War Zone" (season 1x20) and joined the cast at the start of season 2; Winifred "Fred" Burkle (played by Amy Acker) appeared as a cameo in "Belonging" (season 2x19), fully in "Over the Rainbow" (2x20), then joined the cast for season 3.

I have no problems with Gunn and Fred on their own - but during season 3 they became a couple and I think I'm now able to express why their relationship didn't work for me. Early episodes of season 3 teased the idea of them pairing up, sometimes as a joke (ie, "I've been forking with Gunn" in "That Vision Thing", 3x2); at various times both Gunn and Wesley Wyndham-Pryce (played by Alexis Denisof) expressed an interest in Fred and it became clear in "Provider" (3x12) that it was a full-blown love triangle; Gunn and Fred admitted their feelings for each other in "Waiting in the Wings" (3x13) and from then on were a couple.

But this being a show executive produced by Joss Whedon, they weren't together very long all things considered. Starting in "Supersymmetry" (4x5) their relationship started a long, slow death after Gunn murdered a man in order to prevent Fred from doing the same thing. For several episodes they were tense and Gunn even struck her in "Soulless" (4x11), which is definitely not a great moment in his character development. They broke up in "Calvary" (4x12).

Yet at the time, I didn't even realize that was the moment they broke up - their relationship's slow dissolve had been going on for so long that I didn't think it was over - it was only when Fred brought up their relationship in the past tense during "Release" (4x14) that I realized their break-up in "Calvary" truly was the end of the Gunn-Fred relationship.

Their relationship went on against what was one of the darkest periods of the series, which is saying something! Just one episode after "Waiting in the Wings", Wesley decodes a prophecy declaring "The father will kill the son" which sets into motion events which will cause Wesley to have his throat slit and Angel's son kidnapped and raised by Angel's nemesis, Holtz. And at the same time that Gunn & Fred's relationship was falling apart it was during an extremely long arc in which the apocalypse was being ushered in and virtually all of the lead characters were upset and barely speaking to each other. The Gunn-Fred break-up was just one more relationship destroyed during that season 4 arc.

Many of the creators on Angel also toiled on Buffy the Vampire Slayer; love triangles and crumbling relationships had been done plenty of times on that series, but Angel had been mostly free of relationship drama until its 3rd season: Doyle had been attracted to Cordelia in season 1, but died mere minutes after admitting it; Wesley and Cordelia had love interests (Virginia, the Groosalugg) but mostly as a means of character development; Kate Lockley was introduced as a love interest for Angel, but the series never actually paired them up.

Suddenly, season 3 delved headfirst into relationship drama among the mains and supporting characters: Angel is in love with Cordelia; Cordelia is back with the Groosalugg; Fred and Gunn are in love; Wesley is also in love with Fred; Wesley gets into a relationship with Lilah Morgan. Season 3 was also a season which was very heavy on arc-based storytelling with fewer stand-alone episodes than the previous two seasons (and season 4 doubled-down on that). Most of the season is given over to the storyline involving Darla's pregnancy, Connor's birth, Connor's kidnapping and Connor's return as Angel's new foe.

One of the problems with arc-heavy seasons is that not every character has a role to play. Rewatching season 3, I noticed that when Darla arrived in "Offspring" (3x7), it led to about 4 episodes where the only people who could affect the plot were Angel, Darla, Holtz, and Wolfram & Hart's lawyers. Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Cordelia, Lorne - they were all present, but with less focus or agency than usual. To be sure, they each had their moments between "Offspring" and "Dad" (3x10), but it heralded what would become a much greater problem in season 4 when an even longer storyarc would mostly ignore the characters who couldn't affect the plot (Gunn, Fred, Lorne).

Where am I going with this? Back on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the series' first truly dark storyline (that of Angel becoming Angelus in season 2) happened at the same time that the characters Willow & Oz became a couple, as well as Xander & Cordelia. With all the angst which went on in the lives of Buffy and Giles during that season, it was pleasant to be able to shift into lighter, brighter fare with the program's two happy couples.

Similarly, during this extremely dark period of Angel's broadcast history it was an opportunity not only to give Gunn & Fred some agency (since they were mostly adjacent to the season 3 & 4 storyarcs) and contrast to what the other characters were experiencing. But I found both then and now that their relationship didn't work.

There are three kinds of Gunn-Fred scenes I've noticed:

1. Gunn & Fred eat food; remarks are made about Fred's huge appetite (a running joke which was mostly referencing how thin Amy Acker was, but food is also a time-tested way for fictional people to talk about sex)
2. Gunn & Fred have a "lovey dovey" scene
3. Gunn & Fred are angsting about the characters' problems

My least favourite of these scenes are the second type. It definitely gave J. August Richards some different material - he'd largely been denied any love interests on the series until season 3 - but boy, the kind of dialogue which seems sweet when uttered by 'teenage' characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer is just about unbearable on Angel. Gunn in particular is given a lot of extremely earnest dialogue which doesn't sound remotely like his usual 'voice', such as in "Birthday" (3x11) when he stammers "Fred, you are - you are so cool." Some of this dialogue is simply meant to puncture Gunn's usual macho dialogue (Whedon programs frequently undermine 'macho' characters), but it doesn't sound like a man who was then almost 30.

So against the dark events of later season 3 episodes we had a happy couple who were... well, too happy. Too bubbly. Too great of a contrast next to what was happening to the characters.

But ultimately the Gunn-Fred relationship doesn't work because it's introduced as a complication; the show had been placing much more emphasis on Wesley's feelings for Fred, particularly in "Billy" (3x6). When a show presents an unrequited romance, you'd better believe the audience wants to follow that plotline; pairing Fred up with Gunn instead was in part something which gave those characters something to do, but mostly it was a relationship designed to further Wesley's character development.

Indeed, the scene in "Waiting in the Wings" where Fred and Gunn share their first kiss quickly pulls away to show Wesley's reaction. We in the audience are not being invited to share in the warm fuzzy romance of Fred and Gunn, but instead asked to empathize with the heartsick outsider. The very beginning of their relationship is framed as a moment of heartbreak! The Gunn-Fred relationship serves to isolate Wesley from the group; as I noted, the very next episode is where Wesley finds the words "The father will kill the son"; part of why he doesn't share this intelligence with the others is that Gunn & Fred's relationship has made his friendship with both of them socially awkward.

Where, prior to "Waiting in the Wings", were the scenes of Gunn pining for Fred? There were, as I noted, various jokes, admiring glances and wooden, earnest dialogue on the subject. But while we saw Wesley confiding his attraction to Cordelia, who was sharing Gunn's confidence? If this was a romance we viewers at home were supposed to be invested in, why was it framed mostly as a "shocking swerve"?

It feels as though the writers came up with the idea of Fred and Gunn getting together as a way to further Wesley's character development and surprise the audience... but had precious little else to do with the coupling once it had happened.

And there was definitely great potential in the Gunn-Fred relationship, but it only began to be unearthed during their lengthy break-up. Way back in "Fredless" (3x5), Fred had described her friends with various titles; Gunn's was "the muscle". It was a brief moment and a simple phrase, but it came back with a vengeance in "Spin the Bottle" (4x6) as Gunn and Fred's relationship deteriorated. "So I guess I'm the muscle," Gunn reflected glumly in that episode. Gunn's quest to become something 'more' than just 'muscle' leads to his becoming a lawyer in "Conviction" (5x1) and, in an extremely tragic outcome, Fred's death in "A Hole in the World" (5x15).

The idea that Fred's intelligence made Gunn feel dissatisfied with himself, seeking to better himself - that could have been a great development for his character it it had begun a season earlier. If, back in the period where Gunn and Wesley were both pining for Fred, it could have been fun to see Gunn trying to better himself, trying to 'prove' he was more than just 'the muscle', trying to win the confidence that he could be a match for Fred. That might have inspired more anticipation in the audience to see them wind up together. What better thought could you plant in the audience's mind than, "I hope they wind up together"?

Instead, Angel framed the couple as a complication in the Fred-Wesley romance. It's a pity. But it's not the worst thing to happen to Angel...

Tomorrow: Connor

Allen Bellman's "Vampire Brats"

Acknowledgments of Allen Bellman's passing have been pouring in. Marvel Comics has seldom paid much attention to him, but they kindly wrote up an obituary for him. The best write-up on Bellman is indisputably that posted by Michael J. Vassallo.

It doesn't feel for me to send off Bellman without looking back on one of his stories, so that's what I'm going to do; this is "Vampire Brats" from Adventures into Terror#4 (1951)!

Our heroine is June Beaumont, a young woman who came to New York hoping to make a hit on Broadway! ...But she can't find work on the stage so she answers an ad for work as an "attendant to assist at infant' nursing home!" She heads to the address on Bleeker Street (nearby Doctor Strange! that doesn't bode well) and finds all the staff seem to go about in a daze.

The infants are strangely subdued during the daytime but another nurses insists, "They'll feed tonight!" True enough, the infants wake up at night (isn't it always the way?), becoming much more lively. But when June goes to feed one of them the infant grows fangs and leaps at her throat! June screams and runs from the ward, the infants in pursuit. "Creeping, crawling, toddling..."

June tells a policeman about her ordeal but he informs her that the building was condemned 20 years ago. When she revisits the building a few days later she finds it is abandoned. Months down the road June takes on a babysitting job for her friend Sally, but as she prepares to tuck in little Janice at night, Janice grows fangs. "No, no! Not again... Janice, not you... you're on of them too!" June screams. And the story is over.

Thoughts: Well, the shocking reveals of this story are mostly ruined by the title. They're not the most terrifying babies in comic book history, but this story is so loony I can't help but love it. Vampire babies could be a frightening concept, but these creatures are too adorable and don't seem likely to menace anyone without a lot of cooperation from their victims. But I like it. You did well, Mr. Bellman.

RIP Allen Bellman

Allen Bellman died today, aged 95.

I've frequently used this blog to discuss my love of Marvel Comics' 'Atlas Age' (comics published when the company was called Atlas) and Bellman was one of the few remaining creators from that era - he and Marvel went back all the way to 1943! Most of his work was done on one-page stories (notably the recurring 'Let's Play Detective' feature) but he worked on tales of all types and in all genres. He left Marvel after 1955 and spent much of his life outside the sphere of comics, but around 1998 Dr. Michael J. Vassallo rediscovered him and he began visiting comic book conventions, reminiscing about his days at Marvel and even reuniting with fellow Marvel veterans.

The Horrors of It All has a number of his Atlas horror stories on their blog: click this link to see what they have. I was fortunate enough to meet Bellman in passing during my one-and-only trip to San Diego Comic-Con in 2009. And now, like so many of the greats I met at that event, he's passed on. Rest in peace, Allen Bellman.

Angola in the Comics #14: Njinga Mbandi, Queen of Ndongo and Matamba

Here's a rarity for my occasional "Angola in the Comics" series - a publication which exists solely to educate people about Angolan history! I learned from it as well!

The book is titled Njinga Mbandi, Queen of Ndongo and Matamba and was co-published by UNESCO and Harper-Collins in 2014 as part of a series titled 'Women in African History'. Half of the book is given over to educational material about the history of Angola and Njinga Mbandi, but the largest portion of the book is the comic book adaptation of the life of Queen Njinga Mbandi. The comic was written by Edoard Joubeaud and Sylvia Serbin with art by Pat Masioni (a Congolese artist).

The book is written in a very simple easy-to-read style, probably to help ease it into classrooms. Most of the comics pages use a single illustration per page and there aren't too many speech balloons (most text is in captions), but it is definitely a comic book. I had heard a little about Queen Njinga in passing through my research on Angola and I saw a statue of her while I was in Luanda two years ago. It's good to finally have absorbed the most salient details of her life and better understand where she fits into Angolan history. Since this book was intended to serve as an educational aid, I'd say it did its job. Thanks, UNESCO!