Anyone who knows me by now knows I love my vampire metaphysics certainly when it comes to the soul.
I apologize to all those who have heard this before, but I believe there are a few new faces so those who have read my theories before, please just humour me.
Now the first premise I'm going to hypothesize is that Btvs and Ats are dualist shows. That is the say there is a separation of body and spirit.
Now this is extremely important to note when we talk about Angel and Angelus being 'different'.
The best way to understand this is to look at roughly what the soul is and the implications it has on the metaphysics of being a vampire.
Most people in this thread, seem to be what I call Theory 1 supporters. What is Theory 1 I hear you ask? Well I'll tell you:
Well Theory 1 relies heavily on the concept of the soul equating to the spirit or ‘anima’ of an individual. Now this soul is the consciousness and memories of the individual. It is, if you like, the Cartesian “I”.
Now let us use Angel as an example in our models (whilst noting the same metaphysical rules pretty much apply to Spike with the obvious difference of the happiness clause and the soul being intended as a curse)
Firstly we have Liam who is made up of:
A human body + his human soul.
We note here that the soul is in fact Liam, the body is just the thing he’s wearing. So for example if he had someone else's body, he’d still be Liam just in a different body.
However after the siring process, Liam went to the Ether and a demon took his memories and his body but it’s not Liam, thus Angelus was born:
Angelus=demon body – Liam.
After 150 odd years of evil, Liam was forced back into his demon body and for some reason remembers Angelus’ crimes as if he did them. Hence Angel is born.
Now there is of course another theory, my favourite theory!
Theory 2 debunks Theory 1 as Watcher’s Council propaganda. It also implies that Angel and Angelus are not as separate as Theory 1 makes them out to be.
Under Theory 2, we still have the concept of the spirit or anima, but it is distinct from the soul which I’d describe in basic (and admittedly rather crude) terms as a conscience.
So Liam=Human physiology + anima (the important Cartesian “I”) + soul (his conscience).
When turned, Liam doesn’t disappear; he merely changes physiologically and psychologically.
Angelus=Demon physiology + anima – soul
It’s important to note here that the anima is still present. Now this anima is the same continued consciousness throughout. It’s still same individual but due to those physiological differences (due to his demon nature) and his psychological differences (due to his lack of soul) he merely behaves differently.
Now the reason why I prefer Theory 2 is because this is theory whereby the curse makes the most sense.
After 150 odd years of unthinkable evil the Gypsies return his conscience back to him, therefore allowing him to remember all the things he did with the ability to feel guilty about them.
So in short, Angel is merely Angelus with a conscience.
Separate or Different?
Now here is where we need to get specific. Now if we run with Theory 2 then we accept that Angelus and Angel are not separate. Now people often say that they are different based upon how differently they behave. Now I’ve always reasoned that all personality equates to, is a persistent combination of behavioural patterns. Because most people have a relatively consistent set of behavioural patterns, the question of personal identity seems a little easier to approach. However because Angel has two distinctly different combination of behavioural patterns, the easiest way to understand them is to separate them. Under Theory 2 , despite these differences in behaviour with or without a soul, Angelus and Angel are still the same person with “Angelus” and “Angel” being convenient labels for these sets of behavioural patterns, but it’s still same ‘anima’.
Now linguistically speaking when Angel says things like “…I drove (Drusilla) insane” or “I almost had (the world) sucked into hell…” Theory 2 is the only theory that makes sense if we’re assuming that we’re dealing with a dualist slant on the verse. It’s not the body we’re talking about, it’s the anima.
The best way to demonstrate this is using body swap episodes as examples. If Faith is wearing Buffy’s body and does all sorts of naughty things, it’s still Faith who is doing those things not Buffy. So it wouldn’t make sense for Buffy to talk about those things as if she did them.
The rule would apply to Angel if his anima were not present when the demon committed all those evil deeds. Even if he were to remember them, he’d still be mistaken if he were to say he was the one who did them.
Now, Carpe Noctem, becomes problematic with Theory 1 as well. Remember that under Theory 1, Liam is forced back into his body and remembers all the things that Angelus did as if he did them, even though technically he didn’t commit such deeds. The question becomes, why? In Carpe Noctem, Angel and Marcus swaps animas, however neither one of them retains memories of the body they are taking over. So it would seem the memories are part of this anima as oppose to the body. For example Angel still remembered Cordy etc, but clearly didn’t know who Ryan (who worked in the retirement home) was. The only reason who knew his name is because he was deft enough to read his name tag before he covered it up. The fact that Ryan referred to Marcus having ‘episodes’ indicates the other men were not as savvy as Angel was and were confused, disoriented and apparently claiming to be someone else. So regardless of the body they are wearing, there seems to be a clear sense of personal identity. Angel when in Marcus body never believes he is Marcus and vice versa. Yet Angel claims to have done the things he did without his soul, which seems to imply the anima and the soul are separate.
So what does this mean? Well under Theory 2, it means that Angel was same individual who mentally abused Buffy for months. He is the same person who sadistically tortured her Watcher and father figure. He was same person who was behaving dramatically different due to lacking a soul. Not to drag Spike into this but it’s important to note that the dramatic difference in behaviour isn’t proof they are separate, because if this were the case then all vampires would behave as dramatically different as the human or souled counterparts and that clearly isn’t the case with Harmony or Spike. This is why I posit the differences are merely psychological and “Angelus” is merely a nickname and convenient label for his behaviour without a soul.
As for the original question, I was never really a Bangel to begin with. I simply agree with all those who demand consistency when attempting to address the metaphysical aspect of Spike and Angel’s identity.
In short, if the same guy who wore the amulet and saved the world is the same guy who attempted to rape Buffy, then same guy who also saved the world and save the Scoobies from suffocating (for example) is the same person who mentally abused Buffy for months. Of course, the same applies if their souled and soulless counterparts are separate: what applies to one, applies to the other.
