Connor's Original Purpose..?

[NeddaSai]

We all know that after Charisma's pregnancy they decided to include it into the S4 storyline and Connor's purpose as "The Miracle Child" became him impregnating her so she can give birth to Jasmine..

So, what if Charisma didn't get pregnant? The original s4 storyline was Cordelia becoming the season's big bad not Jasmine, but what about Connor..? No Jasmine equals no Cordy/Connor. They must have had a story for him to justify the two-vampires-having-a-baby plotline? What do you think thier original storyline for him was?

I mainly ask because I liked "Season3 Connor" and always wondered how his storline would've unfolded without the behind the scenes shenanigans.. thoughts?

 

[Flash123456]

I think that they were always going to end the season the same way, with Conor's death at the hands Angel and the creation of the separate and completely different character of Conor Reilly.
What I think they were aiming for with the Conor /Cordy storyline was a rehashing of the Faith and the Mayor storyline. The powerful evil Cordy/Mayor controlling and manipulating the young vulnerable Conor/Faith by telling them how special they are and they're the real chosen one in order to keep them in line. The same way Holtz controlled Conor by saying "God gave you to me"
The Miracle child aspect probably wasn't going to be part of the overall season, just a plot device in the manipulation. Evil Cordy would replace Jasmine in the last section of the season.

I don't blame Charisma's pregnancy for how poor the season turned out. I feel it was doomed from the start. That the season was filled with repetitive and old rehashed storylines that didn't suit the tone of the show and characters.

 

[Myheadsgonenumb]

I think I read somewhere once that, when it came to Angel story lines, they never really planned that far in advance. They were never sure what to do with Angel, as a character, so they would just tear him down as far as they could and see what happened.
So Connor's original purpose was literally to give Angel the one thing he was never supposed to have, the one thing that would matter more to him than anything else in the world, which would give him purpose and future and hope - and then destroy him completely by taking that thing away. Double points for having Wesley betray him in order to do it.
Obviously that made very compelling and heartbreaking viewing - but it did leave them with a kid that they couldn't get rid of and so they had to create a purpose for him.
I also read that when they first sent Cordy up to be a higher power they had no real idea of how they were going to bring her back down. They threw around a lot of crazy ideas - she was going to be possessed by the now evil for plot reasons Doyle (sometimes people say Glenn Quinn was suppose to return, but he died before anything came of it. I don't think this is true (after firing him in S1 there is no way they would have brought him back when he was still in rehab) - I think Cordy would just have been Doyle, because what ATS is really crying out for is more bad Irish accents. I would have loved to see how they got the Angel is in love with Cordy, Cordy is actually possessed by Doyle - who is pretending to be in love with Angel story line round the network, though. I really want to see that.) The other plan was to have Cordy be the big bad herself - and obsessed with bringing about world peace... which makes no sense for Cordelia as a character. Either way I imagine they would have kept the 'Cordy manipulating Connor' story line - as they need him to do something now they're stuck with him. But both scenarios would have been majorly weird - and, in the case of it being real Cordy, even more gross than what we got.
If anything - I think CC's pregnancy and the need to bring in Jasmine was actually the saving grace of S4. It would have been so much worse without it - because they hadn't actually planned any decent story lines in the first place.

 

[AlphaFoxtrot]

It was the 90s, long term story telling was still a new thing, and introducing a plot thread without a clear idea of how to resolve a plot was very common.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

It was the 90s, long term story telling was still a new thing, and introducing a plot thread without a clear idea of how to resolve a plot was very common.

In other words, bad writing.

In aviation, there is a saying, "Plan your flight then fly your plan". In literature, there are the planners and the pantsers, the latter who "fly by the seat of their pants" without knowing where they are going. You can see signs of this in "Oliver Twist" where the story seems to be two concatenated stories, to the detriment of continuity, to be expected because it was originally written as a serial for a newspaper. If you want to impress me with skills that would be useful in writing, show me your PMP (Program Management Professional) diploma or a degree in systems engineering or structural engineering. This shows an understanding of planning and plotting and basing elements of a story on a pre-agreed concept. A degree in Literature is not as useful because it is just a degree in watching someone else work. I know I am going to get dumped on from a great height for saying that but there are players and spectators in any industry and if you are writing, you are a player. If you are watching or reading, you are a spectator. Spectators do not necessarily have the skills of the player. The player always has the skills of the spectator.

I recognize that when you have a stable of writers, it is difficult to assign someone to episode 2 and 3 of an arc before episode 1 has been written, so you tend to get continuity errors unless the concept happens at the beginning of a season before anyone puts any words on paper and this is usually not possible unless you get advance knowledge that your are locked into a new season.

Back to Connor, he was introduced because we had all seen plenty of Angel brooding and being an incomplete guy with a long-lost love, no family and nothing of interest happening in his own story. So we get a dalliance with Darla that produces a son. Fortunately, we pass through the "Gee, I'm a dad" phase quickly and this begins to affect the plot. There is some continuity problems between the program and the comics - Qu'ortoth is supposed to be a hell dimension in the program but looks more like Valhalla or the Native American "happy hunting ground" in the comics. I would have more fear of trekking through Australia than Qu'ortoth because you are not the apex predator there. After all, the band Oz was in (Dingoes Ate My Baby) was based on a believable event. Demons never ate Connor.

 

[Octavia]

I sorta thought they introduced a baby to appeal to the aging nature of Buffys original target audience. If they had kept Connor on as a toddler/child I suspect it would have been a bit like the later seasons of Charmed. People still coo over that demon fighting family unit.

If the show had not gone for the heartbreak, I would not have stuck with it. I am not one to enjoy children in any adult interactions and at first I thought they made Angel "Mr Dad" to appeal to all of the women considering breeding at that stage. I was pleased the story did not turn into what Charmed did. The monotony of family life, with demon sprinkles.

I do not know how s4 would have panned out. Perhaps Jasmine would have been more popular if they had not twisted previous parts of the show for her to fit. Cordielia as Jasmine may not have worked although I imagine its possible to have turned out similar to the Agents of Shield arc on the same subject. Discussions of what free will is, is an appealing topic to me as a sci fi fan. Its been done a fair few times and I am one who always enjoys it.

Teen Connor could be quite sweet, and I wonder how, considering his parents and upbringing. Having Connor worship Jasmine despite her true face was a brilliant depiction of true and chosen love.