The Hypothetical Inner Workings of Lawson

[Taaroko]

Lawson, the WWII American submarine operator turned by Angel in "Why We Fight", has always been somewhat perplexing to me. Why didn't he enjoy killing and maiming and so forth like other vampires do, why did that trouble him, and why did he do it anyway if he wasn't getting anything out of it? The theory Lawson himself offers, that Angel gave him "just enough of his own soul to keep him trapped between who he was and who he's supposed to be," never really worked for me, because I couldn't see why any part of Angel's soul would transfer along with the demon.

But yesterday I had a new thought about Lawson. As far as we know, he is the only vampire in Buffyverse history who was sired by a vampire with a soul and survived for any length of time (the ones Spike sired in S7 while under the First's hypnosis were dispatched too quickly for their behavior to be studied). So there's really no way of knowing for sure how it would work for him or why, because there's no one to compare him to.

This is all purely hypothetical, but it makes Lawson make sense to me, so I'm going with it. For my idea to work for you, you'd have to buy into my main theory about souls in the Buffyverse, because this ties directly into that.

The way Lawson fits in would expand on the bit about how the human soul and the human mind are always bound together when both are present. They vacate the body together when a human dies, unless that human is turned into a vampire, in which case the mind remains behind and is bound instead to the shiny new vampire demon. Angel and Spike both had their souls restored by magic, and the text of Angel's curse, at least, specifies that this magic makes his soul "penetrate every ounce of the flesh, every sinew of the body, and every tissue of the heart" (as seen on Jenny's computer screen in "Passion"). So their souls are magically reattached to their minds when they're restored, giving them dominance over their demons, and it's up to them to choose how much to allow their demons to influence them.

As I said before, I've always been skeptical of the idea that Lawson ended up with part of Angel's soul, and it seemed equally unlikely that he would have kept just a piece of his own. But, working off this theory, what if his soul simply stayed put? All of it, not just part. If we take that snippet of Angel's curse literally, then it isn't unreasonable to suppose that the presence of his soul is mystically imprinted on his blood. So when Angel turned Lawson with some of that blood, it could have been enough to make Lawson's soul remain in his body.

However, even if it did remain, Lawson's soul wasn't restored by magic. So instead of staying bound to the mind like the soul is supposed to be, the demon kicked it aside and attached itself to mind instead, in spite of it still being present. We know the vampire demon is strong, because we saw Angel's destroy Eyghon from within his body in about five seconds in "The Dark Age". It wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume that the demon could defeat the soul in a fight for control of the mind, if the soul doesn't have any magical help.

The end result would be that Lawson's soul is in the same position that the demon is for Angel and Spike. They are both good (or have the ability to be good, at least), but those vampiric instincts and the bloodlust are still always there. Lawson is evil, but the soul and everything that goes with it is still always there, along for the ride and unable to stop the actions it doesn't like, but perfectly able to make its discontentment known. Which is why Lawson got none of the fulfillment other vampires got out of being evil, but was still evil anyway.

 

[Thamior]

It could also be that Lawson's soul is fully functional. Souls don't prevent you from being evil; they only enable you not to do so. Even if Lawson wasn't evil as a person (which we have no reason to doubt, since all his actions in the flashback were either good or neutral), the demon could still have corrupted his soul, rather than overpowering it. His hate for angel, together with his need for blood made him evil. If we assume that Lawson did have his soul, then I think that says a little about Angel and Spike. We simply assumed, since we found out that Angel had a soul, that this was the reason for his being good. However, we now see that it is not enough to possess a soul, but one must have strong conviction to be able to keep that soul from being corrupted by the demon inside them.

 

[Taaroko]

I don't know. In general, people who intentionally do evil things despite their souls seem to get some kind of sadistic pleasure out of it, otherwise, what would be in it for them in the first place? Lawson's problem was that he didn't get anything out of it, and yet he still did it. When he was alive, he seemed to be a rather valiant, strong, and good sort of person. You can't really say all of those things about either Liam or William, and yet Angel and Spike have their demons well under control. But perhaps what made the difference in their case is that they only regained their souls after the demons were allowed to run unchecked for extended periods of time. Lawson's soul had no such baggage to deal with, which would indeed have made it easier for his demon to corrupt him.

 

[VisionGirl]

You can't really say all of those things about either Liam or William, and yet Angel and Spike have their demons well under control.

Hmm, well I don't know that I'd say that Angel has his "demons well under control" all of the time. His middle name is "moral ambuguity" after all LOL. But I don't doubt that either your theory or the other one you summarized is true...we can see that the Fanged Four are in some ways different from other vampires (fiercer, more notorious, etc), and some have hypothesized that this is due to their being in the Master's lineage. So it would make sense that a vampire with a soul might pass along some specific characteristics if he/she sired a human. I love this discussion!

---------- Post added at 07:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 PM ----------

Comments on this post
Taaroko agrees: By "Angel has his demon under control," I mostly just meant that he's not going around biting people and taking sadistic pleasure in cruelty, and so forth. His morality in general is another matter entirely. Glad you like the discussion!

I do see what you mean, especially after reading your post in the Angel/Angelus thread. I have always liked that Whedon et al chose to not oversimplify things by sticking to the typical demon/bad, human/good characterizations. The shows are clear that humans can indeed do as much evil if not more than demons; and it's even more appalling considering the fact that they are in possession of conscience and soul.

 

[SlayerFae]

This thread/topic, in and of itself, is FABULOUS. It was something that actually bothered me about the explanation in Why We Fight as well. I agree that, through the exact wording of Angel's curse, it's highly likely that part of the curse is infused in his blood. We've never seen another example of a human or "being turned" vampire being fed the blood of an ensouled demon (except for Spike). Here's my theory on the difference:

As I said, I agree that the CURSE is infused in his blood, NOT Angel's soul itself. I don't think Spike's "childer" would have inherited the ability to maintain their soul, purely because he wasn't cursed with his soul, but rather fought for it to be put directly into him. It's possible that the magicks that were necessary to reinstate his soul are part of his blood now, but really I doubt that magick could be transferred. He is the ONLY vamp we've ever seen who fought the demon trials for his soul, so it's very likely that whatever spell needed to obtain his soul was SPECIFICALLY for Spike, and would not transfer.

That being said, we did not see, on screen that is, the demon who re-ensouled Spike perform any ritual or spell. He simply put the soul back in his body. Doesn't mean there wasn't magick involved, we just don't know what that magick entailed, or the spell verbatim to understand how it was achieved.

On the other hand, if you were to believe that the same "mutation" of having a soul happened with Spike's vamps as well as with Lawson, then based on the events in the basement during Sleeper, it would be safe to assume that their souls were also under the control of The First, as they worked single-mindedly to entrap Buffy so that Spike would kill her. Whereas Lawson's demon may have only been strong enough to subdue his soul just enough that he could not relish the kill, the will of The First was so strong as to completely override the souls of these vamps to the point of the soul being "unconscious" of their actions under that control. (this is all totally assumed) As was mentioned, unfortunately they didn't survive long enough to be rid of that control so as to examine their behavior under their own free will, or to compare it to that while being puppets of The First.

 

[Taaroko]

As I said, I agree that the CURSE is infused in his blood, NOT Angel's soul itself.

Ooh, this is excellent. You have a very good point. Angel's soul wouldn't literally be flowing in his blood, but the curse itself is imprinted on his entire being, including his blood, and that information could be enough to trap the souls of any humans he turns within their bodies. *grimace* Poor Lawson. That's just awful. I'm so glad he's the only one Angel ever turned.

I don't think Spike's "childer" would have inherited the ability to maintain their soul, purely because he wasn't cursed with his soul, but rather fought for it to be put directly into him. It's possible that the magicks that were necessary to reinstate his soul are part of his blood now, but really I doubt that magick could be transferred. He is the ONLY vamp we've ever seen who fought the demon trials for his soul, so it's very likely that whatever spell needed to obtain his soul was SPECIFICALLY for Spike, and would not transfer.

I think the Ritual of Restoration must have been tailor-made for Angelus, though, because otherwise why wouldn't the Scoobies have tried it on other vamps--like vamp Willow, for example? Or even Spike once he was more or less on their team? And why would the curse even single Angelus out if it wasn't specific already? The ritual didn't call for any possessions of his, or some of his hair, or anything like that to identify him as the target, and he could be cursed even if he was far away from the one casting it, so it must have been written into the text in ways that can't easily be altered to apply to another vampire.

That being said, we did not see, on screen that is, the demon who re-ensouled Spike perform any ritual or spell. He simply put the soul back in his body. Doesn't mean there wasn't magick involved, we just don't know what that magick entailed, or the spell verbatim to understand how it was achieved.

I'm sort of basing the assumption that the demon used magic to restore Spike's soul off the cover art of one of the (debatably) canon Spike comics, in which Willow is shown doing the same thing to Spike that the demon did. She'd obviously be using magic to do it, so the demon must have done too. But I always assumed that the demon used a spell anyway. I mean, what else could it have been? Pretty sure it wasn't divine power or something, considering that we are talking about a demon.

On the other hand, if you were to believe that the same "mutation" of having a soul happened with Spike's vamps as well as with Lawson, then based on the events in the basement during Sleeper, it would be safe to assume that their souls were also under the control of The First, as they worked single-mindedly to entrap Buffy so that Spike would kill her. Whereas Lawson's demon may have only been strong enough to subdue his soul just enough that he could not relish the kill, the will of The First was so strong as to completely override the souls of these vamps to the point of the soul being "unconscious" of their actions under that control. (this is all totally assumed) As was mentioned, unfortunately they didn't survive long enough to be rid of that control so as to examine their behavior under their own free will, or to compare it to that while being puppets of The First.

Yeah, we really can't know how it worked for Spike's kiddies, but the idea that the First controlled them pretty much covers the explanation for their behavior, if indeed they kept their souls too.

 

[SlayerFae]

I think the Ritual of Restoration must have been tailor-made for Angelus, though, because otherwise why wouldn't the Scoobies have tried it on other vamps--like vamp Willow, for example? Or even Spike once he was more or less on their team? And why would the curse even single Angelus out if it wasn't specific already? The ritual didn't call for any possessions of his, or some of his hair, or anything like that to identify him as the target, and he could be cursed even if he was far away from the one casting it, so it must have been written into the text in ways that can't easily be altered to apply to another vampire.

Honestly, I believe it was specific to Angelus because they had exactly targetted the killer of their Romani princess. They wouldn't have needed anything of Angelus' because they had her body (if you go back over the flashbacks in Becoming, you can see her lying on a funeral bed), which obviously had A LOT of contact with Angelus, so they had enough of his essence (maybe even his genetic material in one form or another) to use so as to specify their intended vampire. I think that once Willow had completed the curse on Angel (so by season 3), it would have been no problem for her to adjust the spell for another vamp, but the issue never came up. I actually would have found it a GREAT twist if during Lover's Walk, Willow had instructed him to gain the necessary components for the curse instead and given Spike his soul then. It would have been interesting to see how well he fared dealing with it when forced upon him instead of him fighting for it.

In terms of Vampire Willow, I think our normal Willow was really more concerned with being humane by putting the vampire "back in it's natural habitat." She may have (if the suggestion even came up) thought that cursing her would be a little bit wrong. OR it just would have been creepy to have two souled Willows from different walks of life/unlife running around normal Sunnydale... *snickers* Xander would have ended up with Vamp Willow.

---------- Post added at 06:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:49 PM ----------

Here's my OTHER thing with that. IF Willow was stated in show to know how to manipulate the curse for other vampires, the issue of her being able to manipulate it to make Angel's soul PERMANENT would have come up. So my major belief was that, for plot purposes, this is why the curse has not been used on another vampire.

 

[Taaroko]

Here's my OTHER thing with that. IF Willow was stated in show to know how to manipulate the curse for other vampires, the issue of her being able to manipulate it to make Angel's soul PERMANENT would have come up. So my major belief was that, for plot purposes, this is why the curse has not been used on another vampire.

Oh, man I get so sick of the characters never even so much as *talking* about trying to fix Angel's curse. It's just so idiotic! This would get rid of the Angelus problem FOREVER *and* make Angel's life suck much less in one stroke, because he wouldn't have to be afraid of joy. And yet they never even suggest it? I mean, holy crap. I know it's a pretty awesome plot device in lots of ways, but if the writers were really that keen on keeping it in there, it wouldn't have been hard to include one tiny little scene where they bring up the idea, shoot it down as being impossible for whatever reason, and move on. (In fact, I was so annoyed about the lack of such a scene that I wrote a canon-insert one-shot fic so that the problem would at least be taken care of in my head.)

Okay, rant over. Back to what you were saying about it, the phrasing of the curse could have just been too complicated for Willow to know where to begin to alter it for another vampire or so that it won't break if the cursee experiences perfect happiness. It's supposedly written in an obscure Romanian dialect, after all. Most of the Gypsies who spoke it and could read it probably got wiped out by the Nazis in WWII, so Jenny, Enyos, the "elder woman" and maybe a couple of other families might be the only ones left in the world who know enough about the language to do anything with the curse, and now Jenny and Enyos are dead too. And Jenny even said that those magics were long-lost to her people anyway, so the curse is pretty much stuck the way it is.

 

[VisionGirl]

Oh, man I get so sick of the characters never even so much as *talking* about trying to fix Angel's curse. It's just so idiotic! This would get rid of the Angelus problem FOREVER *and* make Angel's life suck much less in one stroke, because he wouldn't have to be afraid of joy. And yet they never even suggest it? I mean, holy crap. I know it's a pretty awesome plot device in lots of ways, but if the writers were really that keen on keeping it in there, it wouldn't have been hard to include one tiny little scene where they bring up the idea, shoot it down as being impossible for whatever reason, and move on. (In fact, I was so annoyed about the lack of such a scene that I wrote a canon-insert one-shot fic so that the problem would at least be taken care of in my head.).

Finally another person who thinks this way too!!! This bugs the crap out of me that it was not even mentioned. I'm not a writer, and even I thought about it once or twice! Of course it would remove an element of drama & Angel has better things to do (saving others/searching for redemption etc) so I can understand them not actually finding a solution, but you would think it would be mentioned at least! Sure there are other reasons why Angel & Buffy can't be together post season 3 (as much as my Bangel heart hates to admit it), but we know that this was one of the biggest obstacles. Of course, no more "moment of perfect happiness", no more Angelus, and we all love a little Angelus LOL!

When Wesley finds a mystical prophylactic in ATS s3, so that Cordy & Groo could com-shuck, I could never understand why it wasn't suggested that it might work for Angel. I don't know if it would have, but it was never even offered as a possibility. Now, we all know that Wes subsequently explained to Angel that a moment of perfect happiness is indeed a rare thing, so that even he & Buffy might not ever experience it again, but still I couldn't help thinking "Angel, keep it for yourself!" when he goes to retrieve it at the brothel.

---------- Post added at 09:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:41 PM ----------

OK, just read your fic, and I love it. What an interesting interpretation. I would've loved to have seen Giles' response to that.

 

[SlayerFae]

Back to what you were saying about it, the phrasing of the curse could have just been too complicated for Willow to know where to begin to alter it for another vampire or so that it won't break if the cursee experiences perfect happiness. It's supposedly written in an obscure Romanian dialect, after all. Most of the Gypsies who spoke it and could read it probably got wiped out by the Nazis in WWII, so Jenny, Enyos, the "elder woman" and maybe a couple of other families might be the only ones left in the world who know enough about the language to do anything with the curse, and now Jenny and Enyos are dead too. And Jenny even said that those magics were long-lost to her people anyway, so the curse is pretty much stuck the way it is.

Good point, also valid. Honestly I think that with all the power Willow ended up having available to her, she probably could have manipulated it. Granted by then a) it would never have crossed her mind because Angel had been in LA for at LEAST 2 season by that point and b) she was sort of joining the dark side by that point, so really not making with the benevolent uses. Also, I don't believe that Romani magick was heavy into black magicks, so I'm thinking that if that was the only power available to her, it wouldn't have been compatible with the original magicks used to manifest the curse.

PS, LOVE that you wrote the missing scene to explain that away. I believe my fave story of that was one where they didn't realize until after Angel came back from hell that the higher powers that had entered Willow's body to make the spell had changed the final words so that the soul was permanent. Can't remember the author.

 

[SlayerFae]

Taaroko agrees: Yeah, for being such a cruel curse, the magic used seemed pretty white, and Willow generally found white magic fairly dull when she was on her power trip. Glad you like the fic. It makes me feel much better about the no-curse-altering in canon.

Yeah. I always found that a little odd. At least in season 3 she was using pretty neutral, or at least benevolent magicks. (floating objects, love/anti-love spells, protection charms, etc) But season 4 hit and she started using magick a little more selfishly (examples: Something Blue, Wild At Heart) and some less neutral stuff as well (The spell to light up all the demons in Sunnydale probably wasn't a white magick spell and would need the calling of darker gods to help bring the spell about... I'd have to rewatch that episode and listen to the incantation). As far as the enjoining spell... It was benevolent to some degree, BUT a) seemed like a spell which was demanded of the higher powers, not requested, and b) was calling on the strength of the first Slayer, which we find later (season 7 "Get It Done") was a darker power than we thought previous. And Willow's magick use went downhill after that until season 7.

The reason that always bothered me was that Willow is SUCH a benevolent, sweet, kind, and beautiful person that it seemed a bit wrong that she was going after such negative power. Now in some instances (like Wild At Heart and Something Blue), I understand her reasons for performing magick selfishly, especially under those circumstances, but on the whole, it seemed like she was doing magick for all the wrong reasons. That being said... They're on a Hellmouth... The Hellmouth corrupts anything, so it's quite possible that the magick she was latching onto was the energy she felt was more powerful or came easier, which the Hellmouth's energy would definitely be.

 

[Kana]

Going back to Lawson. It's uncertain what causes his malaise. Circumstantially he's not the only soulless vampire to hit a existential crisis. In the same way that there is human behaviour that is considered atypical, some vampires deviate from the norm.

Vampires seem to have a certain 'clarity of evil' for the most part but Lawson feels disconnected. There is no reasonable evidence that Angel would pass on his curse to anyone else because the curse was specific to him. There is nothing we've seen that would suggest that the curse was in his blood. I suppose as much as it's possible that Lawson didn't feel guity for his actions (like a human psychopath) and therefore either ignored his soul or felt disconnected from it, or it could be that as a human his desperate need for a higher purpose followed him through into his vampire life. The remnants of his humanity were enough to overcome the the normal vampiric psychological clarity, much like Spike's trait as a lover allowed him to turn his back on his vampiric nature. This makes our vampires even more complicated than they already are.

 

[VisionGirl]

Going back to Lawson. It's uncertain what causes his malaise. Circumstantially he's not the only soulless vampire to hit a existential crisis. In the same way that there is human behaviour that is considered atypical, some vampires deviate from the norm.

This is true- Harmony had moments where she "wanted" to be good. She was worried when she supposedly killed her sex partner. I won't say that she felt guilt, she was more worried about what Angel was going to do to her, LOL. But it did seem that she wanted to be a part of the team, and was mostly able to control her actions while she worked for Angel at W&H.