Tranquillity
That'll put marzipan in your pie plate bingo
I came across this discussion on another website (link here) and found it pretty interesting. Basically, it was arguing that in season four there is, early on quite a bit of foreshadowing for a xander/buffy romance. It suggests that when the show was originally envisioned and overall story arc was planned but, along the way it got hijacked by various events such as Angel getting his own show, Spike not being killed in season two, and the lack of chemistry between SMG and NB. The writer of this post puts forward a suggested frame of how the story would have worked without the need for adaptation. This is this person's suggested outline:
1. Angel does not leave Buffy at the end of s3. Instead, and permanently, he loses his soul. The soul is (they think) DESTROYED. No way of regaining Angel. He returns to his Angelus persona, and becomes Buffy's nemesis.
2. It's Angelus who's chipped in s4. Not Spike. Because Angelus was once Angel, the Scoobies decline to stake him once he's toothless. He drifts, gnashing his teeth, into the Scooby orbit. Buffy can't stand to be in the same room with him. The other Scoobies ostracise him. Other demons beat him up. The Scourge of Europe falls humiliated into the gutter. Reduced to a joke, and how he would have burned for revenge.
3. In s5, Angelus slowly falls in love with Buffy (as Angel did before him) and begins to move toward redemption.
4. In s6, what happened between Buffy and Spike would have taken place between Buffy and Angelus - an Angelus with (Buffy thinks, the Scoobies think, Giles thinks) no means of ever becoming Angel again. Then Buffy's self-disgust, her punishment of her lover, her fear of discovery, would have been overwhelmingly obvious to viewers, because Angelus is evil on a grand scale Spike never came close to (or, they never showed us). So too would the disgust of the Scoobies (and especially Xander) follow logically from past events.
So ... Xander spurns Anya at the altar because of his finally admitted love for Buffy, Anya attacks seeking vengeance, Anya dies. Anya's story is then properly (if tragically) complete. Xander saves Willow, proving himself a hero; then returns to Buffy's orbit, loving her, probably convinced he could never have her but unwilling to settle for less.
5. And at the end of s6, it would have been Angelus who sought and won his permanent soul. The curse would have been broken.
6. The First Evil's pursuit of the souled vamp in s7 would then have been a true continuation of the Christmas episode in s3; it went after Angel then, and it would be coming back for Angel again as the End of Days approached.
7. Finally, Angel/Angelus would have redeemed himself and won shanshu in the last episode, dying and setting Buffy free to live out her life with Xander.
While I personally don't want a Buffyverse with limited Spike, I still think there is some narrative merit to these ideas"¦ Agree? Disagree?
1. Angel does not leave Buffy at the end of s3. Instead, and permanently, he loses his soul. The soul is (they think) DESTROYED. No way of regaining Angel. He returns to his Angelus persona, and becomes Buffy's nemesis.
2. It's Angelus who's chipped in s4. Not Spike. Because Angelus was once Angel, the Scoobies decline to stake him once he's toothless. He drifts, gnashing his teeth, into the Scooby orbit. Buffy can't stand to be in the same room with him. The other Scoobies ostracise him. Other demons beat him up. The Scourge of Europe falls humiliated into the gutter. Reduced to a joke, and how he would have burned for revenge.
3. In s5, Angelus slowly falls in love with Buffy (as Angel did before him) and begins to move toward redemption.
4. In s6, what happened between Buffy and Spike would have taken place between Buffy and Angelus - an Angelus with (Buffy thinks, the Scoobies think, Giles thinks) no means of ever becoming Angel again. Then Buffy's self-disgust, her punishment of her lover, her fear of discovery, would have been overwhelmingly obvious to viewers, because Angelus is evil on a grand scale Spike never came close to (or, they never showed us). So too would the disgust of the Scoobies (and especially Xander) follow logically from past events.
So ... Xander spurns Anya at the altar because of his finally admitted love for Buffy, Anya attacks seeking vengeance, Anya dies. Anya's story is then properly (if tragically) complete. Xander saves Willow, proving himself a hero; then returns to Buffy's orbit, loving her, probably convinced he could never have her but unwilling to settle for less.
5. And at the end of s6, it would have been Angelus who sought and won his permanent soul. The curse would have been broken.
6. The First Evil's pursuit of the souled vamp in s7 would then have been a true continuation of the Christmas episode in s3; it went after Angel then, and it would be coming back for Angel again as the End of Days approached.
7. Finally, Angel/Angelus would have redeemed himself and won shanshu in the last episode, dying and setting Buffy free to live out her life with Xander.
While I personally don't want a Buffyverse with limited Spike, I still think there is some narrative merit to these ideas"¦ Agree? Disagree?
A
alexa
oo cool
