My apologies if this subject's been done to death. I did a search and couldn't see anything previous.
I was just musing about Angel and that pesky soul of his after rewatching some of Buffy Season Two.
Let me get some of this griping out the way. Don't you think the Gypsies should have said something about the whole "moment of perfect happiness" clause before? I mean, you would think that having lost one of their favourite children to the soulless Angelus, that they would be rather keen to not risk it happening again. To be fair, straightaway after the original spell was enacted, perhaps Angel was not in the best state of mind to read the "small print", but they had over a hundred friggin' years to catch up with him and explain what kind of eternal suffering they had in mind for him.
Not a great plan, really....and they lost another one of their women to prove the point.
Now as to the spell, given that every new age wannabe had an Orb of Thesula as a paperweight, it would be fair to say that the restoration of souls was not an uncommon procedure.
Yet the world was not overrun by ensouled vampires, which leads one to assume that that particular spell had an altogether different purpose. (Try and stay with me here....I haven't had a whole lot of sleep.....) So, if the spell's original use was for, oh let's just say healing, then there would be no reason to include the 'moment of perfect happiness' clause. I somehow get the impression that this was something that was added just for Angel (which again poses the question why not tell him about it?)
So, here's a question....when Willow re-ensouled Angel the first time, did she use the original, no secret catch version of the spell? It would make sense that she did, as Miss Calendar was going from the source material, which would have meant no clause. Imagine that, the clause now invalid, and nobody knows. Willow was too inexperienced at that time to know that, of course, and Angel had to leave Buffy....but you would think that someone, Giles maybe, would have asked the question and had a closer look at that all-important spell. Its not like they lost the spell, Willow had it bound into a book for chrissakes. This is a sitch that will never really be answered to anyone's satisfaction, but I thought this was worth a tiny discussion. Your thoughts, if you please.
I was just musing about Angel and that pesky soul of his after rewatching some of Buffy Season Two.
Let me get some of this griping out the way. Don't you think the Gypsies should have said something about the whole "moment of perfect happiness" clause before? I mean, you would think that having lost one of their favourite children to the soulless Angelus, that they would be rather keen to not risk it happening again. To be fair, straightaway after the original spell was enacted, perhaps Angel was not in the best state of mind to read the "small print", but they had over a hundred friggin' years to catch up with him and explain what kind of eternal suffering they had in mind for him.
Not a great plan, really....and they lost another one of their women to prove the point.
Now as to the spell, given that every new age wannabe had an Orb of Thesula as a paperweight, it would be fair to say that the restoration of souls was not an uncommon procedure.
Yet the world was not overrun by ensouled vampires, which leads one to assume that that particular spell had an altogether different purpose. (Try and stay with me here....I haven't had a whole lot of sleep.....) So, if the spell's original use was for, oh let's just say healing, then there would be no reason to include the 'moment of perfect happiness' clause. I somehow get the impression that this was something that was added just for Angel (which again poses the question why not tell him about it?)
So, here's a question....when Willow re-ensouled Angel the first time, did she use the original, no secret catch version of the spell? It would make sense that she did, as Miss Calendar was going from the source material, which would have meant no clause. Imagine that, the clause now invalid, and nobody knows. Willow was too inexperienced at that time to know that, of course, and Angel had to leave Buffy....but you would think that someone, Giles maybe, would have asked the question and had a closer look at that all-important spell. Its not like they lost the spell, Willow had it bound into a book for chrissakes. This is a sitch that will never really be answered to anyone's satisfaction, but I thought this was worth a tiny discussion. Your thoughts, if you please.
