Angel's Curse

[white avenger]

Okay, Angel obviously had no idea that his soul came with any escape clauses at the time that he and Buffy spent their one tragic night together, so he can be excused for just drifting along in ignorance until then. After the fact, however, as in after his soul restoration, does he ever make any attempt to get the "one moment of perfect happiness" clause revoked, thereby anchoring his soul permanently in place and thereby assuring him and Buffy the happy ever after that they both seemed, at the time, to yearn for? Until the Shanshu deal, he was all about the redemption and seeking his humanity again, but up until that point, Ol' Broody just seems content to live up to his pseudonym.

 

[TabulaRasa]

Ya he never went on a hunt to solve the problem. Too bad he didn't do what Spike did. No surprises there. Well minus the pain of his soul, remembering all the people he killed and what he did to them. That was pretty painful. It really is too bad Angel didn't go on this type of mission of redemption. But when Angel is Angelus, he is a true bad guy. Not like Spike. He just 'acts' like a bad boy. You would think tho that Angel would want to figure out a way around his curse, but I guess some curses are not meant to be broken or 'tweaked.' Also it's what made it more interesting.

 

[Blondie Bear]

I always thought the curse was kind of lame, anyway. I mean, what made it seem like a good idea to turn your worst enemy into a fluffy bunny . . . until he gets happy, and then he turns back into the evil thing that hurt you in the first place!

And I wondered why Willow didn't figure something out, especially the second time she restored his soul. She was probably powerful enough to pop his soul back into his body without the whole revocation part of the curse.

 

[Edmund Blackadder]

Maybe he didn't want it revoked.

He believed himself accountable for what he had done in the past. He then found out that his moment of true happiness lost him his soul and he turned back into Angelus.
His path for redemption wasn't just becoming human, it was being able to love again, truly and if he could do that before he had atoned for his sins, it wouldn't be worth it.

It is why the Morah demon is so easily discarded in season 1 and the Shanshu means more.

He isn't after the easy way, he isn't after the quick fix he needs to earn it in himself.

Also, it wasn't that he lost his soul while having sex with Buffy, it was the fact that as she got older he'd stay the same, eventually having to watch her die. He could deal with that in time, but he worried that it would be difficult for her too as she wouldn't have the 'normal' life that she deserved due to the crap she dealt with Slayerwise.

Thats what the big thing with the Shanshu is. He wins his humanity after the coming crisis. After the apocalypse Buffy won't be in danger, so they can 'settle down together' as opposed to using the Morah which effectively takes him out of the fight(though this is the issue I have about not being able to fight - how come Xander, a relative newbie with little strength can fight but Angel who'd have centuries of fighting experience and an equal strength to Xander be more a liability?).

 

[Lou]

You know I always wondered about the practicality of the curse, myself. The only thing I came up with was that when he WANTED the curse lived he wouldn't be happy and when he started to actually repent, he'd be trying to not be happy so he wouldn't turn back into Angelus. Thus, keeping him unhappy and repenting for a LONG TIME.

But, what I also wondered was....
when they give him back his soul I didn't remember them using gyspy curses....so wouldn't the original curse be null and void? It came, it did, it went...I would have assumed it was over and the new "resouling" would be different.
And then they do it AGAIN.....
I'm just thinking that he never really tested the theory. He kept saying he couldn't be PERFECTLY happy, but he never really pondered that it might not really matter anymore.
Probably not a road Joss wanted to travel down becaue the threat of "perfect happiness" was too fun. It's my theory though, that the curse part was all in his head, for years.

 

[Spirit_Of_Fred]

i thought what they did was the curse...or something derived from it. i mean, jenny was trying to deciper the curse on her computer, right? she had it since she was from the gyspy clan. then, that is the one willow ends up using, and uses again later. did i misunderstand that?

 

[Lou]

You know, we may all have to go back and watch...sadly, my sister has that part of the DVDs right now. (She thought Buffy was stupid, so now she has to watch.)
I thought she was deciphering whatever gypsy spell could put a soul into a vampire. I just assumed that the curse part (or the part with the perfect happiness loophole) was put in place by the actual gypsy who cursed him. Kind of like following a cookie recipe and throwing in nuts because you like them.

But, come to think about it, I don't know anything about gypsy curses. And her family WAS still pretty obsessed with Angel NOT losing his soul again (which brings us back to why they would add that loophole in the first place.) I guess they COULD have been obsessed enough to write down the whole curse again and maybe it wasn't just a spell to put a soul in a vampire.
If only Jenny hadn't been so secretive about exactly what she was doing, this would be SO much easier.

 

[Tranquillity]

The whole thing was the curse, the soul and the loophole. The curse was to give him his soul so that he would suffer endlessly with remorse and guilt for his actions as a vampire. the loophole was like punishment - if he was ever perfectly happy, if he forgot about his horrible deeds even for a fraction of a second, then he would lose his soul again. i agree that is a bit stupid to bring back the monster as punishment but i don't think the gypsies were overly concerned with his actual killing, rather they were offended over the murder of one of their own. that's why they cursed him rather than killed him. It would have made more sense if Angel had known about the loophole (or did he? - was his night with Buffy a case of temptation winning over reason? i think i'd better watch innocence/surprise again). it would certainly explain the habitual brooding!