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| 275px David Boreanaz as Angel. |
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Angel (also known as Angelus and Liam) is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, and portrayed by David Boreanaz.
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[edit] Appearances
[edit] Television
Angel's first appearance is in "Welcome to the Hellmouth", the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In it, he meets the protagonist of Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), a young girl destined to fight evil in the small town of Sunnydale. For the first half of the season, Angel is an enigmatic love interest for Buffy, showing up only to offer her cryptic messages about upcoming threats. It isn't until the episode "Angel" that the character is revealed to be a benevolent vampire, cursed with a conscience when gypsies returned his soul as an act of vengeance. Although uneasy about trusting a vampire, Buffy and the Scooby Gang eventually come to view Angel as an ally.
In the second season, Buffy and Angel's romantic relationship develops and the pair make love in the episode "Surprise". However, Angel's curse has a catch which means if he ever experiences a moment of true happiness, such as sex with a person he loves, he will lose his soul and revert to the evil Angelus again. Turning evil, Angel reunites with his old friends, the villainous vampires Spike (James Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau), and begins terrorising Buffy and her friends. He murders their friend Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte), and attempts to destroy the world by awakening the demon Acathla. In the season finale, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) manages to restore Angel's soul. However, Buffy is still forced to kill him to save the world from Acathla, and Angel is sent to hell.
In Season Three, Angel inexplicably returns from hell. The Scooby Gang are outraged when they discover that Buffy has been secretly caring for him since his resurrection, but grudgingly accept him after he saves Willow's life. When Angel is later manipulated by the First Evil into committing suicide, his life is saved by divine intervention. Although Buffy and Angel initially try to be nothing more than friends, they eventually resume their romantic, albeit celibate, relationship. However, as Angel becomes more aware of their limitations as a couple, he eventually breaks up with her in the hopes that she will be happier without him. He decides to leave Sunnydale altogether, but not before attending Buffy's prom and helping her in the battle against the Mayor (Harry Groener).
After his departure from Buffy, Angel appeared his own spin-off series, entitled Angel. Moving to Los Angeles, he starts a supernatural detective agency called Angel Investigations. He dedicates himself to "helping the helpless", and becomes a Champion of The Powers That Be, who send him psychic visions through his employees Doyle (Glenn Quinn), and later Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter). In doing so, he frequently clashes with the powerful law firm Wolfram & Hart, who represent the evil of the world. During this season, Buffy and Angel appear in each other's shows, but are forced to accept that they are not meant to be together. In the season finale, Angel is given some hope at redemption when the Shanshu prophecy reveals that a vampire with a soul may eventually become human after fulfilling his role in the upcoming apocalypse.
In Season Two, Angel discovers that Wolfram & Hart has brought his sire and former lover Darla (Julie Benz) back from the dead in human form. Although Darla is intent on bringing back Angelus, Angel hopes to save her soul and help her seek redemption while she still has a chance. However, just as it looks like he might succeed, Wolfram & Hart bring in Drusilla to turn Darla back into a vampire. Embracing his dark side, Angel fires his employees and embarks on a vendetta against Wolfram & Hart, allowing Darla and Dru to massacre a group of lawyers. Losing faith in his mission, he has sex with Darla in the hopes of losing his soul. Instead, however, he experiences an epiphany and realises that the good fight is still worth fighting. A disgusted Darla flees L.A. and Angel reconciles with his friends, who eventually forgive him.
Season Three sees Angel struggle with fatherhood when Darla returns pregnant with his child, despite the fact that vampires are unable to concieve. When Darla kills herself to give birth, Angel is left to raise the baby Connor (Jake and Trenton Tupen) and protect him from those who wish to get their hands on a child of two vampires. False prophecies, time travel, and betrayal lead to Angel losing his infant son to an old enemy, Holtz (Keith Szarabajka), who abducts Connor into a hell dimension where time passes differently. Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) returns days later, fully grown and under the belief that Angel is a soulless monster. Holtz kills himself and frames Angel for his death, prompting Connor to take revenge by sinking his father to the bottom of the ocean. Over the course of this season, Angel's friendship with his colleage Cordelia evolves into romance, but circumstances prevent him from confessing his feelings.
In the fourth season, Angel is rescued from the ocean by his former friend Wesley (Alexis Denisof). As Los Angeles crumbles under the apocalypse, Angel is forced to cope with the romantic relationship between his son and Cordelia. In order to find out more about the Beast (Vladimir Kulich) terrorizing L.A., Angel Investigations remove Angel's soul and bring back Angelus. Their plan fails, and Angelus wreaks havok until Willow manages to return his soul for the second time. It is eventually revealed that Cordelia is possessed by Jasmine (Gina Torres), a higher power who puts humanity under her thrall in the hopes of achieving world peace. When Angel restores free will and ruins Jasmine's plan, Wolfram & Hart offer him control of their L.A. branch as a reward for putting a stop to world peace. Angel accepts when they agree to rewrite Connor's memories of growing up in hell, allowing him to live a normal life with a new family. Afterwards, Angel appears in the final episode of Buffy, presenting Buffy with an amulet to help her battle the First Evil.
In the final season of Angel, the character's perceptions of himself and his destiny are challenged when he becomes Chief Executive Officer of Wolfram & Hart. Angel suffers from depression this season due to the increasingly blurred line between good and evil, the deaths of loved ones Cordelia and Fred (Amy Acker), and the possibility that the Shanshu prophecy may in fact be referring to fellow vampire with a soul Spike rather than himself. Allowing his friends to believe he is being corrupted, Angel secretly plots to bring down the Senior Partners of Wolfram & Hart by assassinating the Circle of the Black Thorn, signing away his Shanshu prophecy in the process. Realizing that he may never be able to fully stop the forces of evil, Angel and his friends enter into a suicidal battle against the Senior Partners, and the series ends with the question of their survival unanswered.
[edit] Literature
[edit] Powers and abilities
Angel has the powers and vulnerabilities of a Buffyverse vampire, though he is considerably stronger than the average vampire. He is a highly skilled combatant and generally fights unarmed, using circular attacks such as spinning kicks and back hands. He has, however, mastered many varieties of weapons, favoring the axe and the broadsword. Angel also possesses some cognitive abilities; he has a photographic memory ("Habeas Corpses") and has displayed a psychic connection to those he has sired on at least one occasion ("Somnabulist"). In "Power Play", he reveals that Cordelia passed on her visions to him earlier that season in "You're Welcome". However, he explains that this was a "one-time deal", suggesting that this ability is not permanent. As Angelus, he displays considerable skill in manipulating others emotional states and has driven his victims insane, as seen with Drusilla. With or without his soul, he is shown to be an expert in torture, having tortured Giles as Angelus ("Becoming, Part Two") and Linwood as Angel ("Forgiving").
As well as his supernatural abilities and fighting skills, Angel displayed a number of other talents. He apparently has "very nice handwriting" and is a skilled artist, first seen in the episode "Passion", using charcoal crayon and China ink to draw portraits. He can speak several languages, including Korean, Italian, Spanish, French, Russian, Romanian and German, and in "Harm's Way" tries to learn the language of the Vinji and Sahrvin demons from an instruction tape. He is a convincing improvisational actor, as seen in the episodes "Enemies", "Five by Five", and "The Shroud of Rahmon." In the episode Supersymmetry Angel exhibited an ability to project memories into a form observable by others as evidenced by Charles Gunn's reference to Angel's "Parlor Trick".
[edit] Development of character
Boreanaz said that when he auditioned for the role of Angel, the role was described to him: "He may get hit, but he'll always come back. He has the grace and movements of a boxer, and he's mysterious".[1] Originally, Angel was supposed to be a one-time character until David Boreanaz was found.[2] However, when it was planned that Angel would lose his soul, Joss Whedon was doubtful of David Boreanaz being capable of portraying the cruelty of Angelus. Joss changed his mind after he saw David performing Angelus and said that he never saw anyone creeping him out like that.[citation needed]
[edit] Appearance
200px|thumb|Boreanaz as Angel in the fifth season of Angel. Although Angel is meant to be an immortal, and thus never physically age, Angel's appearance does change in accordance with David Boreanaz's age. When Boreanaz first appears in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Angel, he is 26. At the end of his own series in 2004, he is 33. This element of the fictional universe calls for a suspension of disbelief, although it has been a source of humour on DVD-commentaries. [3] Consistently though, Angel has a tattoo on his shoulder-blade of a griffin from The Book of Kells,[4] with the addition of the letter 'A' beneath it.[5]
[edit] Character traits
Angel is born in Ireland, and in flashbacks his Irish accent is extremely strong. By the time of his first appearance on Buffy, Angel has developed an American accent, having lived in the country for close to a century. During those first years in America, Angel becomes somewhat of a "Fanilow" (a fan of Barry Manilow), particularly loving the song "Mandy". As he quotes, "I think it's kinda pretty". During his mental battle with Angelus, his demon stated that he particularly hated Angel's visits to Manilow's concerts. He also stated in Season 5 that he enjoyed William the Bloody's poetry, to which Spike retorts, "You like Barry Manilow."
Other preferences, include, according to the character Cordelia Chase, a "thing" for petite blondes. She most likely drew this conclusion from his romantic relationships with Buffy Summers and Darla. Angel is also a fan of ice hockey (he watches the game in "Life of the Party") and he hopes Connor will grow up playing ice hockey, one of the reasons being that it is a sport where most games are played indoors, and at night (allowing for vampires to spectate).
Over the course of the show, Angel has been able to do things that a normal vampire can't. Angel once insisted, "There are three things I don't do: tan, date, and sing in public," although he has broken all of those rules on occasion; he sang in Caritas, dated Nina, and endured sunlight by various methods: during "In the Dark" he possessed the Gem of Amara, allowing him to go to the beach during the day; in "I Will Remember You" he was temporarily restored to human life; he was unaffected by the sun of Pylea; and throughout Season 5 he had an office protected by "necro-tempered" glass that prevented the sun from affecting him.
Similarly, although Angel is technically dead, he has experienced a heartbeat on three separate occasions; once when he was temporarily resurrected by the blood of a Mohra demon ("I Will Remember You"), when he was temporarily transferred into the body of an old man with a heart condition ("Carpe Noctem"), and when his heart was briefly restarted during a fight with Gwen ("Ground State").
The character's villainous streak as Angelus has been well-received and documented. In Buffy & Angel: Official Yearbook 2006, Angelus was voted number two by fans as "Best Buffyverse Villain", with Glory as number one and the Mayor as number three.
[edit] Angel vs. Angelus
Whilst Liam is human and Angelus is a vampire, Angel is a third, unique persona, a demon burdened with a human soul. A hybrid of man and vampire, he constantly deals with vampiric urges, and the human conscience that prevents him from ever forgetting his past misdeeds. Though the early seasons of Buffy expressed the view that when a human becomes a vampire, "You die, and a demon sets up shop in your old home; it walks like you and it talks like you - but it's not you" ("Lie to Me"), later seasons of Buffy and Angel had the relationship between Angelus and Angel far more intertwined. Angelus once referred to himself as "Angel" during Season Two of Buffy (possibly to torment Buffy). Angel usually says "I" when speaking of Angelus, but has also used "he". In "Amends" Angel protests, "It wasn't me!", but more often speaks of Angelus's crimes as his own. They share the same memories, and Angel never resumed the name of his human original, Liam (except while amnesiac in "Spin the Bottle"). Also, in Season One's "Eternity", Angel reverts back to his evil self without even losing his soul, when he is drugged and enters a state of 'bliss' that allows Angelus to regain control. This suggests that in a subconscious state that Angel's true nature is allowed to appear, although it may have been that the drug-induced state of bliss 'tricked' Angel's body into thinking that the curse had been broken.
- Angel: Look, I'm weak. I've never been anything else. It's not the demon in me that needs killing, Buffy. It's the man.
(Episode 3.10 (Buffy) "Amends")
- Angel: ...there is no guilt, there is no torment, no consequences... It's pure. I remember what that was like. Sometimes I miss that clarity.
- Cordelia: But not the trying to kill your friends and family part, right? Just checking!
(Episode 1.21 "Blind Date")
- Cordelia (possessed by Jasmine): What I remember when I was a higher being... I remember seeing you. Your past. When you were Angelus.
- Angel: I've never tried to hide who I was. Or what I've done. You already knew.
- Cordelia (possessed by Jasmine): Knowing's different than living it. When I was up there, I could look back and see everything you did as Angelus. More than see. I felt it. Not just their fear and pain. I felt you. And how much you enjoyed making them suffer...
(Episode 4.07 "Apocalypse, Nowish" Note: Since the above was said by the entity that would become known as Jasmine while posing as Cordelia, this specific example of Angel being just a different aspect of Angelus comes from a questionable source to say the least.)
thumb|left|200px|Angelus' cunning and cruel nature makes him exceptionally lethal. The relationship between Angel and Angelus has been described and depicted in numerous ways. Both personas are shown battling for control inside Angel's mind in the episode "Orpheus". In Season Four, Jasmine threatens Angelus by telling him that she will lock him away inside Angel forever, where he will be forever watching, forever thirsty, forever longing to escape his prison. When the two confront each other in "Orpheus", they clearly appear to be different people, albeit evenly matched. Though Angelus does not accept that Angel is truly 'separate' from him (believing that Angel is merely "denying what he is"), he nonetheless draws a line between the two of them, and is disgusted with what Angel does with his body while in control. Angelus particularly resents Angel's two decades of eating rats after an incident where he succumbed to temptation and bit into from a murder victim. As seen in "Becoming, Part One" and "Becoming, Part Two", it takes a few moments for Angel to remember the events of Angelus' life after the curse comes into effect. This gap in memory is presumably the reason why the spell that erased all memories and references to The Beast did not affect the part of Angel's mind that Angelus resides in.
Although Angelus's bodycount was vast, his worst weapon was arguably his boundless cruelty and love of psychological intimidation. He is prone to brutal displays of what he would see as affection, such as nailing a puppy to a tree. Another example of Angelus's grisly acts of love was when he brought Dru a still-warm human heart on Valentine's Day. Angelus has always had an obsession with elevating death to an art form; a truly satisfying kill must be perfectly framed and appreciated. He delights at the prospect of torturing a bound Giles in "Becoming, Part Two," mentioning that that the last time he tortured someone, they hadn't even invented the chainsaw. In the episode "Amends", The First Evil references him killing a man's three children, then propping them up in bed so that they appeared to be sleeping. It was only after the father kissed one of them good night that he felt how cold they were. This is mirrored in a prior episode when Angelus placed the recently-slain body of Jenny Calender in Giles' bed, making Giles believe she had set up a romantic evening for them.
Angelus had a weakness in that he was prone to excessive talking, and a need to utterly obliterate the mind of his victims before killing them. This streak of sadism sometimes gave potential victims time to escape or fight back (although it made little difference as he almost always got them in the end). Spike once observed to Angelus "you bloody well talk them to death before you kill them!"
It should be noted that Angelus is often referred to as 'Angel,' the former typically being used to distinguish the two if necessary. Angelus accepts 'Angel' as a nickname, unwilling to see a distinction between his 'ensouled' half and his evil half.
[edit] References
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1997-2003, created by Joss Whedon.
- Angel, 1999-2004, created by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Stokes, Mike, "Soul Man", from Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine #1 (UK, October 1999), page 13.
- ^ bbc.co.uk interview
- ^ Most notably on the Angel: Season Five DVD; commentary for the episode "A Hole in the World", as conducted by Joss Whedon, Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof.
- ^ maquisleader.com - tattoo
- ^ cityofangel.com - tattoo
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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