A lot of these are Ats related and all of them are rather "out there", but please be kind when you're tearing them to pieces!
Now I was somewhat hesitant to post these as I'm rarely one for speculation but nevertheless I'll put them out there.
I Will Remember You was a set up
I've always suspected that the Oracles were manipulating Angel into becoming a vampire again. Now I have several scenarios
Scenario 1: It was a test.
Basically the PTBs were testing Angel to see if he would choose the mission over the pleasures of the flesh. If he chose the pleasures of the flesh, then he wasn't the champion they thought he was and therefore would be better off without him, but as he chose the mission it proved to them that he is 'not a lower being'. In other words he passed.
Scenario 2: The PTBs thought that Angel as a vampire was more useful
We know that humans can fight the good fight but we have to admit that supernatural warriors help, a lot!!!
It may be that Angel becoming human really did happen by chance and the PTBs sought to rectify that.
It's possible that they manipulated Angel into 'choosing' to take back the day, so they could have their vampire warrior. It's possible that they knew Buffy would die anyway in a year or so, but used that line to scare Angel into taking back the day. So why not simply changed Angel back into a vampire against his will? Well, maybe it wasn't possible for them to do so or they didn't want to interfere to much with free will etc.
Scenario 3: Jasmine wanted Angel as a vampire to make her impossible birth, possible.
This is similar to scenario 2 but Jasmine is the one pulling the strings.
There really are "timetables and rules".
This refers to Sahjhan's plan to prevent Connor's existence and how, well, flawed it was. Now we know that despite being incorporeal, Sahjhan can hire demons, travel through time and transport beings through time as well. Why not hire a demon to kill human Darla or even Liam? Surely that would have been easier than recruiting Holtz who had his own agenda, transporting him to a time when Connor's birth was imminent, and pitting him against Angel who not only had a soul (meaning the Holtz may have had moral issues with killing him. He didn't, but Sahjhan couldn't guarantee that) but was a lot older and more powerful than he was all those years ago and would be more likely and inclined to protect Connor.
So maybe Sahjhan wasn't lying when he said there are timetables and rules. Maybe his time traveling abilities are limited. He implied this here:
"Hey! You think my life is easy? I'm jumping from one dimension to another. I don't always have sound. Sometimes it's just a visual. "
So maybe his interaction is limited as well.
Cordelia's vision, actually was a vision!!!!
Ok so this sentence doesn't make much sense but it's referring to the vision she had in the episode 'Tomorrow'.
My issue is this: Cordelia only gets visions of people in danger. So my thought was that this vision is no different. It shows her accepting Skip's offer to become a higher being which lest we forget, led to her eventual death. It seems that the Powers were trying to warn her about Jasmine. So why so vague? Actually scratch that. Why so misleading? It's possible that the Powers were not able to be more specific in their visions. I mean the vision she had of Angel in danger didn't mention Connor and in the end was kind of useless. Alternatively maybe Jasmine 'edited' the message so her plan can go ahead.
The Ninja Cyborgs knew about Twilight
The Ninja Cyborgs in Lineage seemed to want to take away Angel's will, so they could use him for their end. It seemed they were a force for good as well. Interestingly the Rogerbot said to Wesley that Angel is more dangerous than he realizes. Wes assumed he was talking about Angel being a vampire, but perhaps they knew exactly how dangerous Angel was going to be and the line about him being a puppet? Well we all know Season 8 panned out...
Jasmine's arrival was both the ruination and purification of mankind...
...Depending on your perspective. Wes translated a verse in the Nyazian Scroll stating that the Tro-Clon would lead to the ruination or purification of mankind. If Jasmine was the result of the Tro Clon, then maybe her arrival can be seen in two ways depending on one's perspective. World peace can be seen as the purification, but lacking free will can seen as our ruination. Or maybe the terms can be used interchangeably to account for the reign and defeat of Jasmine
The powerful control everything...except our will to choose
This is kind of a general point. While I believe that in the Verse there are forces beyond our heroes control, I believe choice matters. I believe this first and foremost from a narrative perspective. How unsatisfying would the series be if everything was down to the higher powers and fate?
This also applies to Jasmine. All she was in my eyes was a powerful manipulator, but she didn't 'control' everything that the Fang Gang were doing. Powerful manipulators don't have to negate free will, they just know how to influence events to get what they want. I mean, heck, Holland and Holtz were great at manipulation and they were just mortal human beings, so it stands to reason that if Jasmine has been around for millenia that she'd be ok at it!!!!
I mean let's look at it this way: Skip said that it's not just everything that happened in the past few years to Cordy that led to Jasmine's ascension, it goes further. How far? We could argue that Buffy and Spike or anyone who is tenuously linked with Angel were being controlled by Jasmine, just so everything was 'just right' and happened at the right time.
Skip then said, their choices don't matter and they are all puppets. So why does he get so nervous when they begin figure out how to stop it? Seen as Skip is working for Jasmine, (he actually states that he was still working for her even he was in the hotel "Do you mind, I'm working here") he's not exactly a reliable source of information. However, as I'm usually diplomatic in most cases, I have to admit it's a possibility, but this doesn't steal anything from Gunn's speech. The best thing is to assume free will because you never know when and if that choice is going to count.
I mean we can assume that Jasmine isn't all powerful and all knowing seen as she had to do a lot of messing around to bring herself into existence and she didn't even predict her own demise. So maybe even the PTBs are subject to rules and timetables beyond their control. Or maybe there are several levels of existence and the PTBs are just one of them. Cordy was on the higher plane and she stated something about being limited in her interaction in the world.
That's all for now, but like a I said, these are kind of 'out there'.
