The Ring of Omara

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dan k

Bangel Is Eternal
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Haven't watched Angel for ages so i decided to catch series 1 on the SYFY channel over here in the UK.

Yesterday i saw the episode where Angel destroys the Ring of Omara and i couldn't help feeling his reason behind doing that was valid but still stupid.

He could have used the Ring to do so much more good, plus it would have allowed him to have a relationship whether that be with Buffy or Cordelia.

In "I will remember you" i understood why he gave up the chance to be with Buffy. He was fighting for redemption and in order to do that he needed to have his vampire abilities.

On this occasion though the ring made him stronger, not weaker. The fact he didn't feel worthy of what it allowed him to do was a bit annoying to tell you the truth.

Anyone else have any views? Where you annoyed he destroyed it?
 
I would have annoyed if he did it because he didn't want to walk in sunlight like human does. I think the main reason is, he didn't want other vampires to look for it. It would never stop and might cause some more damage.
 
I was annoyed too. But as Min said, other vamps would come after the ring and end up causing more Destruction. 😛
 
I dunno, the ring sat in Sunnydale for quite a while & I don't remember the place getting ripped apart by vamps looking for it. I appreciate that once it was out in the open that word would get around & maybe a few would come looking for it, but Angel's got a pretty serious rep & imo the good he could have done with it would have outweighed the risks of keeping it. On the other hand it is a mystical item which breaks the laws of the universe within which the show is set (vampires in sunlight upsets the balance) & by the rules of the same universe there would probably be some sort of price for continued use of such an item. And then of course there is the incredibly simple & insightful reason posted by xaphania while I was writing this convoluted & bifrucated post 🙂 Nice one xaph, I think you're dead on with that one.
 
The reason they seem to give in the episode is Angel doesn't think he's earned it yet. It was like the third episode, he still felt like he had a lot more atoning to do.
 
After two episodes that featured, what was in essence the holy grail for vampires, how would a third episode have gone.

From another perspective, we saw Angel slamming half a house brick on it, we saw a green flash of light, but we were never shown that the ring was destroyed.
 
Doyle: "So how long has it been between sunsets?"
Angel: "200 years, give or take."
Doyle: "Well you got to be feeling pretty damn good then, huh? I mean this ring "“ changes everything, don't it? - Yeah, it's spectacular, I know. But I do promise that there will be another one exactly like it tomorrow."
Angel: "Not for me."
Doyle: "What are you saying? That the city will be hit by a meteor before tomorrow night or"¦"
Angel: "No."
Doyle: "No. It's to horrible to say the other. I can't even bring myself to say the other."
Angel: "I'm not going to wear the ring."
Doyle: "That was the other. - You got a real addiction to the brooding part of life. Anyone ever tell you that?"
Angel: "Once or twice."
Doyle: "Care to explain? - I mean this ring is your redemption. It's what you've been waiting for."
Angel: "nah, it just looks like it.'
Doyle: "Angel, man, think what you're saying."
Angel: "I have. I've thought of it from every angle, and what I figure is I did a lot of damage in my day, more than you can imagine."
Doyle: "So what, you don't get the ring because your period of self-flagellation isn't over yet? I mean think of all the daytime people you could help between 9 and 5."
Angel: "They have help. The whole world is designed for them, so much that they have no idea what goes on around them after dark. They don't see the weak ones lost in the night, - or the things that prey on them. And if I join them, maybe I'd stop seeing, too."
Doyle: "And who'd look out for all the insomniacs?"
Angel: "I was brought back for a reason, Doyle, and as much as I would like to kid myself, I don't think it was for 18 holes at Rancho.â


I always thought that was sort've weak reasoning. If he said something about Angelus instead or in addition to this it would have made more sense.
 
Angel destroying the ring just because it "might fall into evil hands" makes no more sense than if Buffy destroyed the Scythe because one of the bad guys might get hold of it. In fact, she would have had MORE reason to destroy the Scythe, since that very thing happened in the "Wolves At The Gate" arc, but she didn't, because the certainty of the amount of good that she could do with it far outweighed the amount of harm that it could be used for in the wrong hands. The same would have certainly applied to the amount of good that Angel could have done with the help of the ring, but he was so busy brooding about his first sunset in decades that the thought obviously never occurred to him.

Probably the real reason that the ring was destroyed, of course, was that Joss didn't want Angel to be the Buffyverse equivalent of Blade, the Daywalker.
 
T
ToShanshuInLA
You mean centuries, right. ;-)
white avenger said:
Angel destroying the ring just because it "might fall into evil hands" makes no more sense than if Buffy destroyed the Scythe because one of the bad guys might get hold of it.
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No, Angel destroyed it because it was too great a temptation for him. He knew he would have tried to reenter society, and therefore overlook the helpless. You might want to re-watch the end of the episode.

white avenger said:
Probably the real reason that the ring was destroyed, of course, was that Joss didn't want Angel to be the Buffyverse equivalent of Blade, the Daywalker.
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Connor is pretty much a Daywalker.
 
I liked that his two biggest "reward without having earned it" moments were because of Buffy. First she gives him the Gem of Amara and he destroys it because he hasn't atoned and needs to focus only on the mission. And then he is given humanity with Buffy (making love until they are numb, the possibility of living together, getting married, having kids, growing old together) but he gives it up again because they don't belong to themselves but to the world fighting. I felt like S1 showed Angel at his most noble and self-sacrificing. He was really focused on his redemptive path and wanting to earn forgiveness for his sins knowing only then should he let himself be happy. He became more layered with the shades of grey and different aspects to his personality (immaturity and goofiness a mile high, more into revenge) in later seasons but he lost his original mission despite having many ephiphany moments.
 
Changing the subject a bit but i just watched "I will remember you" and it really agitates me that he doesn't tell Buffy what happened after the powers that be turned the clocks back. He showed enormous will power not to tell her and i think that reinforces crazysouless point that at this point Angel was focused on seeking redemption.
 
I always appreciated Spike's view, that there was no point in trying to atone because he was essentially controlled by a demon. Self-flaggelation is kinda lame, and I'm with the people that think Angel had a lot of nerve not telling her what he did (he always tended to be controlling when it came to Buffy). I liked Angel when he was talking to Kate about his epiphany, that it was important to keep fighting, not to win, but because people shouldn't have to suffer as much. Not because he used to kill people and he wants to get back in the plus column.
 
Buffyverse Fan said:
No, Angel destroyed it because it was too great a temptation for him. He knew he would have tried to reenter society, and therefore overlook the helpless. You might want to re-watch the end of the episode.
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Being afraid that Angel would suddenly stop seeing the helpless in the dark was why he decided not to wear the ring. For some reason, he equated the ability to walk in the sunlight as being a danger to his mission of helping the helpless. If he felt that way, and if he somehow equated the ring with making his redemption meaningful, I can understand that. But that isn't any reason to destroy it.

I still stand by what I originally said. The only reason that makes any sense whatsoever for Angel to destroy the ring would be to keep it from falling into evil hands. He stated earlier that he was on the verge of breaking when Cordy, Doyle, and Oz rescued him. That means that he was on the verge of revealing the whereabouts of the ring to someone who would have used it for evil purposes and have been literally unstoppable.

Angel destroyed the ring to make sure that that never happened.

And I DID watch the episode, in its entirety, not just the last few moments.
 
Tim Minear has a possible answer:

http://www.timminear.net/archives/angel/000039.html

`In the Dark` was the first crossover episode between BUFFY and ANGEL. Oz arrives with a mystical ring that renders vampires invulnerable, and he is unaware that Spike has followed him from Sunnydale to Los Angeles in pursuit of it. It all culminates in a battle between Angel and Spike, with Angel destroying the ring after spending a day in the sunlight. To many, it was a lunkhead move that seemed reminiscent of Gloria Stuart throwing the priceless diamond into the ocean at the end of TITANIC. Minear, for his part, would like you see the situation otherwise.


`That’s not the problem I have with the ending of TITANIC,` he says. `My problem with the ending of TITANIC is that she throws it in the water as if that means something about Jack [Leonardo DiCaprio]. It’s got nothing to do with Jack. It was the other guy’s diamond, and I have no idea why she’s throwing it in the water. But in this episode, it makes perfect sense for him to destroy the ring. Can he be trusted? That is the point of the series. If he has the power to be invincible, what would happen if he spent eternity as Angelus? It’s too dangerous. Is there any other vampire in the history of the Jossverse that has a soul? No, so the only person that could possibly wear that ring would be Angel, and Angel knows that he can’t be trusted. Think about Jenny Calendar. In that light, the ending makes perfect sense to me.`
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I really like the concept of 'Angel is the ONLY good Vampire in the 'verse and the only person who could possibly be trusted to use it for good and he doesn't even trust himself'
 
G
GrrArghx
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pieceofgosa
Nice find Wes, I'm defs buying that explanation.
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dan k
makes a lot of sense but why didn't Angel just say that he feared what would happen if he lost his soul.
The ring overall i think is a bit annoying....its not really explained (unless i have forgotten) why or how this ring came about, and even if it was explained, why is there only one? why is it not like LOTR with lots of rings 😛....

But i think Angel's decision was the right one, if you think later on, when he is with Darla, and almost turns 'bad' if he had the ring then, know one would have been able to take it from him, and he would have caused havok...

Plus the ring would have taken away lots of the issues of being a 'creature of the night' don't you think?
 
I think it is sweet that Buffy trusted and believed in Angel enough after he dumped her and skipped town to want to give him the Gem of Amara. I wonder how she would have reacted to Angel trying to lose his soul on purpose in Reprise or locking a dozen weaponless humans at a dinner party in a room with Darla & Drusilla and that taking Ectasy can make his demon slip.
 
from a purely plot POV.

it's simple.. vampire that can walk in sunlight etc. (thereby elimnating the BIGGEST weaknes vamps have.. unless they sparkle gayly of course 😛) is a huge plot piece that would be too hard to deal with as the show went on.

and then yes as someone mentioned, buffy got the ring off spike, who's to say another vamp wouldn't be able to swipe it off angel? and then you've got a totally evil vamp who can walk around in the sunlight.
 
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