Season 8 because ATF is confusing me. The one thing I didn't like about Season 8 was the whole Fray storyline. I could have done without that.
I know what you mean. I try to read the AtF issues twice (once when released, then right before I read the following one), and I still can't keep it straight some times. I guess that kind of meshes with
Angel the series though. I love the show & the the characters, but
Angel lost his way fairly often, partly, because, as he put it:
"You want to know what my problem is? I'm screwed.
That's my problem. I can't win. I'm trying to atone for a hundred
years of unthinkable evil. News flash! I never can! Never
going to be enough. Now I got Wolfram and Hart dogging me, it's too
much! Two hundred highly intelligent law-school graduates working fulltime
driving me crazy. Why the hell is everyone so surprised that it's
working? But no, it's 'Angel, why you're so cranky?' 'Angel, you
should lighten up. You should smile. You should wear a nice
plaid.'"
So I guess us feeling confused by the plot direction kind of shows us how Angel feels, I think he's pretty confused too. And like it or not, without St. Cordy by his side 24/7, it's even harder for him, because at the very least, she was his connection to tptb.
While I enjoyed the Fray arc, I don't like the implications of it, similarly to what Buffy said actually. We watch Buffy put all this effort into forming the new Watcher's Council, and unless Fray lives in an AU, we know that while Buffy probably does win the current Apocalypse, the New Watcher's Council becomes an utter failure and her best friend becomes a Big Bad.
If Illyria's time slips aren't AU either, we can also assume that Spike lives into Fray's time line, and is partly responsible for giving Fray the Scythe...
So if we believe Fray's time line, Illyria's Time slips, tptbs & W&H's visions we pretty much know:
1.) Buffy & Angel win the Apocalypse & banish evil.
2.) Angel may lose his mind a little while doing it, but eventually Shanshu-s into a human (we see him middle-aged in one slip).
3.) While they are victorious in the short term, the future world is pretty crappy, more dystopia than utopia (and seemingly worse than 21st Century America)
4.) Willow becomes evil.
5.) The Watcher's Council becomes crazy, far worse than it was under Quintin.
6.) Spike is possibly the only Champion in the world between Angel & Buffy's death until Fray's calling.