Significance of Los Angeles

W

Willow-Tree

Your Childhood Trauma
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From the moment Angel the Series started, I thought the words Los Angeles and Angelus had to mean something.

I was thinking that:

Los = Lost
Angeles = Angelus

Los Angeles = Lost Angelus.

Angel is trying to redeem himself for his past sins, by trying to "lose" Angelus.

Just a fun comparison I thought of. 🙂
 
S
Spike Angelus
That's some, pretty great thinking!
F
Fredsicle
That never occurred to me. Huh.
E
Eleftheria
i always thought "Angeles" had sth to do with Angel...well you express a very interesting opinion!:)
I'm not surprised that I never thought of it myself. And I wouldn't get Los to Lost. Think that's my spanish lessons taking charge. 😛 But the Angeles Angelus thing has never crossed my mind either. And that's why too close not to be obvious in a way. So neat thinking.
 
I guess that could be the reason. This is what I think:

Reasons Angel choose that city:

*Close enough to Buffy in case she needed help.
*Lots of people to save.
*The name fits him. It's his city, lol.
He lived there before he left for Sunnydale (if I remember the flashbacks correctly).


Reasons for the writers:

*Because of the closeness to Sunnydale, there could easier be crossover-goodness (so the writers don't have to mention the loooooong travels back and forth for the characters)
*Lots of different adventures avaliable, because of the variety of Los Angeles.
*They could work on the 'people who don't fit in anywhere goes to Los Angeles'-theme, which fit well for Angel. There was also the 'people-go to Los Angeles to become someone'-theme that fitted Angel.
*They could make fun of movie stars and the city in general.
 
Skytteflickan88 said:
I guess that could be the reason. This is what I think:

Reasons Angel choose that city:

*Close enough to Buffy in case she needed help.
*Lots of people to save.
*The name fits him. It's his city, lol.
He lived there before he left for Sunnydale (if I remember the flashbacks correctly).


Reasons for the writers:

*Because of the closeness to Sunnydale, there could easier be crossover-goodness (so the writers don't have to mention the loooooong travels back and forth for the characters)
*Lots of different adventures avaliable, because of the variety of Los Angeles.
*They could work on the 'people who don't fit in anywhere goes to Los Angeles'-theme, which fit well for Angel. There was also the 'people-go to Los Angeles to become someone'-theme that fitted Angel.
*They could make fun of movie stars and the city in general.
Click to expand...

Yes, those are probably the real reasons.

What I posted about was probably just a subliminal message, if anything at all. 😉
 
S
Skytteflickan88
Well, it fits with one of my reasons, that Angel, feeling like a freak, feels like going to town filled with freaks.
The Angelus/Angeles thing is definitely important, as (to me) indicated by the elipsis at the end of the title of the first episode, "City of..."


"City of Angels" of course.
 
"City of Angels" is Rio de Janero, Brazil. Wait, or it's "City of Gods"? *me is confused*

I've never thought of Los = Lost before. Good thinking. 😉
 
MinwaraYana said:
"City of Angels" is Rio de Janero, Brazil. Wait, or it's "City of Gods"? *me is confused*
Click to expand...

I googled. But only found that Rio de Janeiro means "River of January". I'll ask Darling. She's brazilian after all.

---------- Post added at 12:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:58 AM ----------

I got an answer. Rio de Janeiro means "River of January" while the slum of Rio de Janeiro is refered to as "City of God" ("Cidade de Deus").
 
MinwaraYana
MinwaraYana
Thank you. :D
Skytteflickan88 said:
He lived there before he left for Sunnydale (if I remember the flashbacks correctly).
Click to expand...

Actually, ight before he was 'recruited' to help Buffy, he lived in New York if I remember correctly.




And as far as I have heard, Los Angeles was always referred to as The City of Angels...So it's quite the appropriate name.
 
He lived in LA (or at least stayed there for a bit) during the 50s, cos that's when he was staying at the Hyperion.
 
Willow-Tree said:
From the moment Angel the Series started, I thought the words Los Angeles and Angelus had to mean something.

I was thinking that:

Los = Lost
Angeles = Angelus

Los Angeles = Lost Angelus.

Angel is trying to redeem himself for his past sins, by trying to "lose" Angelus.

Just a fun comparison I thought of. 🙂
Click to expand...

FRED
Daddy, I love you like pancakes, but I'm gettin' the hell out of here.

FRED'S MOM
(cautioning)
Language.

FRED'S DAD
She should say it. That's where she's going: Hell A.

FRED
It's Los Angeles, the City of Angels, remember?

FRED'S DAD
And if you meet one angel there, I'll eat the dogs. A bunch of junkies and spoiled movie actors"”that's who you're gonna meet.
 
Granted this thread is talking about Angel, but I found it interesting that Joss has now set two of his series in Los Angeles--Angel and Dollhouse (they even share one of the sets, if I'm not mistaken). Both series focus on (in part) the corrupted and corruptable people in L.A., suggesting that something about the city inspires immorality. And when that's not the case, the uncorruptable are busy fighting shadowy organizations. Speaking of that, there's also the similarity between Wolfram & Hart and the Dollhouse, and the organizations' focus on working with questionable people. Dollhouse hasn't really explored actors' attempts to make it in showbiz, but it did show Priya's ambition to become a successful artist. What do the rest of you think?
 
I never thought of it that way before, but it's very fitting. I always just thought of it as being the city where he first discovered Buffy, he was drawn to go back there... After all, that was where he made the choice to fight the good fight. 🙂
 
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