The Scourge: Pure Demons?

[Tucker's Cousin]

I rewatched Hero tonight. Very sad, Doyle becomes a better character to me with each rewatching of Angel s1. But a couple of things always bug me about this episode.

Firstly, the theme is a very valid one about racial intolerance, and I'm not sure how else the writers could have done it, but didn't they take huge liberties with the 'verse canon here? We're told that The Scourge are a race of pure demons that consider most (all? some?) other demon races inferior because of their mixed human heritage. Their goal is to wipe these inferior breeds, and humans, out. Now, if it was just left at this I would assume that this particular breed just thought they had pure blood and were therefore superior. This would have worked well with the real world subtext because the Nazis, for example, and the rw group who The Scourge intentionally resembles, thought they were superior but, of course, they weren't. But apparently the other demon races also see The Scourge as pure demons:

Doyle: "Who the hell is that? (Blend to Doyle talking to Angel) An army of pureblooded demons. They have a big hate-on for us mixed heritage types. Very into pedigree. They hunt us down like animals."

Furthermore, The Scourge develops their beacon to destroy any creature with a trace of human blood. They wouldn't do this if they themselves had mixed demon and human blood or they'd be destroyed as well.

Commander Tiernan: "The Listers, along with any creature contaminated by human blood, will perish the moment the cleansing light touches them. When the beacon reaches critical mass and detonates its reach will extend a quarter mile in every direction. (To the First Mate) Want to see how it works? (The light reaches him and he goes up in a scream) A fitting end for a sorry mutation. (Muttering from the soldiers) Go now and deliver this, our message! Our victory depends on it!"

The problem I have with all this is that we are given to believe that all demons currently walking the earth are of mixed heritage. Pure demons have not existed here since before the written word, at least. Also, pure demons are huge and very powerful beings. I'm sure there are more examples, but this is the only one I can remember at the moment:

Anya: You've never seen a demon.
Buffy: (raises her hand) Uh, excuse me? Kind of professionally, four years running.
Anya: All the demons that walk the earth are tainted, are human hybrids like vampires. The Ascension means that a human becomes pure demon. They're different.
Giles: Different?
Buffy: How?
Anya: Well, for one thing, they're bigger.

The Scourge are extremely humanoid demons who seem to have very little power and rely on their numbers to attack other demon groups. Angel was able to kill their leader with little more effort than he would have a human being. So how can they, of all demon races, be pure blooded?

The second problem I have with this episode is the fact that they accept Angel so readily into the fold.

Commander: "You're one to talk, vampire. Yours is the lowest of all the half-breeds."

Angel tells them that he can take out other half-breeds faster than any of them can. A good point seeing as The Scourge are such frickin' weaklings. I can see them wanting to use him, but giving him a uniform and welcoming him into their meeting with open arms? What kind of supremecists are these guys? Can you see the Nazis giving a Jew an SS uniform or the KKK giving a robe and hood to an African-American then a slap on the shoulder and a hearty welcome aboard? Out of necessity they would be willing to use him, and loathe doing so, but the fact was they didn't need Angel because they had the beacon. In reality (?) they would have stood and laughed at his offer to join them, before killing him very painfully (or at least trying to, not sure whether even a dozen of these "pure-bloods" could pull that off).

Another issue is that when the beacon first get's used and fries the ship's First Mate, Angel is left unaffected. Maybe it wasn't used at full power in this instance, but it's still a bit dodgy.

Don't get me wrong, I really like this episode. But these few points just bug the hell out of me. Does anybody else have any thoughts on this? If I've got this all wrong then I'd really like it to be cleared up so I can just enjoy the ep on future viewings.

 

[goldenboy]

Very thorough analysis, heh. And it prompts the question, are all the other "hybrid" demon species we witness on the shows created the same way vamps and werewolves are? A sort of blood infection? And anyways, Angel and all the vamps are always getting crap from other demons about having the stink of humanity about them...

When we see Pylea, Lorne's race looks just like Lorne does. They aren't gigantic monsters. He didn't seem to change, physically, when he arrived in LA. His race is made up of tainted human hybrids I guess, even in their home dimension? In Pylea, we of course see a vampire demon in its pure form, with Angel. Things that make you go "hmm"...

I'm sure there's someone well-versed (pun intended) around here, who can make sense of the demon stuff.

What struck me about "Hero" was that these demons were very loudly tramping around in stormtrooper formation. Demons are usually pretty stealthy loners. And, for "purebloods", they were looking a lot like sorry-assed mutts, lol. Like their skin was stitched together from different species.

 

[goldenboy]

Well, maybe the "stink" commentary just applied to Angel, and later Spike, cos of their nasty souls. But, most demons do seem to detest vamps in particular...

 

[The Arcane]

For me it boils down to this.

A pureblood demon is not the same thing as a true demon. True demons, such as the type that the Mayor wanted to become and the original form of Illyria, are non-humanoid creatures, absolutely distinct from mankind as a species.

The Scourge were not considering themselves of the same species of demon as that. They were obviously different in that they have a humanoid form but even though that is true they are still an entirely different species to humanity and consider themselves of a more pure lineage than those demons that use human bodies as hosts, like vampires, or worst still have a direct human heritage, such as Doyle. That is the difference as far as they see it.

 

[Tucker's Cousin]

You see how much this is bothering me, I should have been in bed hours ago!

goldenboy: I hadn't thought about what happened to Angel and didn't happen to Lorne in Pylea. That further muddies the waters surrounding this problem. And The Scourge were definitely ugly muthers. I can't remember if it's a line in the ep or something else, but don't they look like they've got old footballs for heads? As to your question about how other hybrid demons were created, wow that's gonna take a lot more thinking. It would have been an interesting thing for either series to investigate.

The Watcher: LOL! I was counting on you to get involved in this. You're the man with the answers. But, to me the adjectives true and pure-blooded are synonymous. How else can a demon be a true demon if it is not pure-blooded and vice-versa? I think you're implying that The Scourge are true, pure-blood demons that just happen to appear humanoid. And maybe they also just happen to be the runts, the ants, of all the true demon species. That's something of an explanation, but there's some big maybes in there. I like things to be neat and consistant, hence the bugging.

I've had another thought about the beacon they were going to use to destroy the "impure" blooded demons and humans. Maybe it works in the same way that The Judge did. Perhaps the humanity that it burns up in people/demons, hasn't got anything to do with their genes and their "racial" mix, but is more about their morality, caring, etc. This would make all demons without conscience and compassion immune to the effects of the beacon. Also, if this were true, then perhaps this is more what The Scourge are about when they're referring to purity. To them a "pure" demon may have some mixed human heritage, but it can still be considered pure if it has none of the traits that a human possesses. Have I just answered my own questions or am I talking garbage?

 

[goldenboy]

Well, the shows were always confusing"”in terms of metaphor vs physical or metaphysical reality. I'm thinking of the Buffyverse soul, for example.

So, your thoughts about morality, evil, may come into play here. Just don't know.

The Scourge demons would appear to be making trivial, irrational distinctions about lineage, as The Watcher has mentioned"”if Anya's statments are correct. All earthbound demons are "tainted" with humanity. Either that, or the Scourge demons are truly ignorant, and don't know what Anya knows. Hitler was a fool, into convoluted Aryan purity mythology and other nonsense, right?

I know the Fray comic describes ancient earth/demon history a little bit...

 

[The Arcane]

The Watcher: LOL! I was counting on you to get involved in this. You're the man with the answers.

LMAO! Okay, am i getting predictable around here? 😀

I do see where your confusion is coming from because the two terms do pretty much mean the same thing but what you have to understand is that the theme of the episode was racism. As Goldenboy already suggested, so many racist groups over the centuries have chosen to ignore the facts in order to suit their agendas of hate. The Scourge were no different.

They likely knew that they were tainted themselves but chose to make the distinction based on the demons of earth who had a direct human heritage, like vamps and half-breeds. Sometimes a minor distinction is all a being needs to hate another. Just look at your average football hooligan and tell me that they are being rational when they beat the crap out of somebody for wearing the shirt of a different team.

So if i were you i wouldn't let the Scourge's use of the term "pure" confuse the issue, because they simply were ignoring the facts about what they were themselves.

 

[Tucker's Cousin]

They likely knew that they were tainted themselves but chose to make the distinction based on the demons of earth who had a direct human heritage, like vamps and half-breeds. Sometimes a minor distinction is all a being needs to hate another. Just look at your average football hooligan and tell me that they are being rational when they beat the crap out of somebody for wearing the shirt of a different team.

So if i were you i wouldn't let the Scourge's use of the term "pure" confuse the issue, because they simply were ignoring the facts about what they were themselves.

In the thread opener I'd already considered this posibility and discounted it on the grounds that a) other demon races referred to them as pure-bloods, and b) the beacon they created to destroy the "mongrel" races would also destroy them.

As I also said in the thread opener, I really like this concept and I think it works well with the theme, but then it gets contradicted by these two points.

 

[The Arcane]

In the thread opener I'd already considered this posibility and discounted it on the grounds that a) other demon races referred to them as pure-bloods, and b) the beacon they created to destroy the "mongrel" races would also destroy them.

As I also said in the thread opener, I really like this concept and I think it works well with the theme, but then it gets contradicted by these two points.

Same kind of technicality, really. They were "pure" in the sense that they had no direct link to humans, in the way Doyle did for example, but still not "pure" in the sense of the original demonkind. They were still tainted but to a much lesser extent.

The hybrid demon races we saw simply referred to them as pure-bloods because of that fact. It made a good term to use as a distinction.

As for the beacon, think of it as disinfectant that you would use to kill germs in your toilet. A weak disinfectant would kill the weaker germs but the stronger ones would remain unaffected. The beacon was obviously set at a level that would only harm those demons with enough of a human aspect and leave the more powerful "purer" demons untouched.

That make sense?

 

[goldenboy]

I does make sense in sort of a mushy way"”a matter of "amounts", degrees of humanity contained within demons. Direct vs indirect humanity.

I was just thinking, I tend not to like eps like this"”something like an allegory, or parable"”with the moral and the preaching so close to the surface. But it was dramatic at the end with Doyle and all...

 

[Black Eye Guy]

I'm not gonna attempt to answer this one because it has stumped me, lol, Excellent Question Tucker's Cousin.

So I would just like to point out The Judge in Season 2, would be considered one of these "Pure" Blood Demons, because he was a demon that had the ability to destroy other demons who had any Humanity in them.

 

[goldenboy]

I was checking Fray again, and if I can recall, it said something like most demons were driven from this dimension by shamens or some such. Some hid away and burrowed into the ground, and some "assimilated", whatever that's supposed to mean. You'd assume that means they could "pass" for humans or animals, I guess. Then it says that some sort of snuck back, as an infection in humans...