Should Buffy told Angel what was going on with Acathla, before killing him? Instead of doing it when he wasn't looking, so to speak.
to be fair, she was certain she killed him by sending him to that dimension. she only found out later she was wrong. so from her point of view at the time of sending angel to hell, she killed him. and when she references this, she means, she killed him to save the world.
Angel wasn't the one who unleashed Acathla, Angelus was. If I was told that I had set events in motion that would cause the world to be thrown entirely into hell and I had no memory of it but was also told I had to be killed to stop it, I would probably not believe it and just try to escape. Buffy did what was necessary - kept quiet and killed him by surprise.
That would be fine except for the fact that Angel DID remember what Angelus did, both in Season 2 and the hundred plus years before he was cursed with a soul. Without any memory, there couldn't be the same level of guilt, and NOBODY can say that Angel never felt guilt. Regardless of what anyone else ever said, Angel never separated himself into two entities. When he spoke of the chaos and atrocities perpetrated by Angelus, he always spoke in the first person, "I killed more people than the plague," "I drove Drucilla insane before turning her," "I tortured and raped for over a century, and did it with a song in my heart"
If there had been time, and if Buffy had told him what she was doing, I have no doubt that he would have jumped through that portal voluntarily, and I also have no doubt that once the deed was done, when he found himself in whatever hell he wound up in, he realized exactly what had happened, why it had happened, and that Buffy did the only thing that time permitted.
Well...yes and no. Angel tells Faith directly that he never had a choice or a say in what Angelus did.
That would be fine, and would support the view that Angelus and Angel are two different people. But if that were truly the case, then the Gypsies' spell wouldn't have had any effect at all on Angel. If he and Angelus are truly two separate beings who just happen to occupy the same animated corpse, then Angel didn't do anything to feel regret for or to try and make amends for. It can't be both ways. Either Angel sees himself as the monster who has been given a second chance, or he is simply a helpless observer, totally innocent of any wrongdoing. Obviously, he sees himself as the latter, otherwise all of his brooding would be wasted. In order to have a tortured soul, there has to be something to have been tortured for.
That would be fine except for the fact that Angel DID remember what Angelus did, both in Season 2 and the hundred plus years before he was cursed with a soul. Without any memory, there couldn't be the same level of guilt, and NOBODY can say that Angel never felt guilt. Regardless of what anyone else ever said, Angel never separated himself into two entities. When he spoke of the chaos and atrocities perpetrated by Angelus, he always spoke in the first person, "I killed more people than the plague," "I drove Drucilla insane before turning her," "I tortured and raped for over a century, and did it with a song in my heart"
If there had been time, and if Buffy had told him what she was doing, I have no doubt that he would have jumped through that portal voluntarily, and I also have no doubt that once the deed was done, when he found himself in whatever hell he wound up in, he realized exactly what had happened, why it had happened, and that Buffy did the only thing that time permitted.
white avenger said:That would be fine except for the fact that Angel DID remember what Angelus did, both in Season 2 and the hundred plus years before he was cursed with a soul.