Angel - General Discussion

[Spartan Girl]

On 5/18/2024 at 2:22 AM, BetterButter said:

20 Years Later, Angel’s Scorched-Earth Series Finale Is Still the Perfect Ending

It’s been 20 years already? Wow.

I’d still take season 5 over 4 because season 5 gave us “Smile Time”.

While rewatching some episodes, I’ve realized Darla’s arc is another example of Whedon sexism. 

The Master didn’t just take her life and her soul, he took her whole identity: she couldn’t even remember what her human name had been, and Angel was really shaken by that reveal, knowing that he never really knew the human behind the monster that made him a monster. The only thing we ever found out about that human woman was that she was a dying hooker.  And when she was resurrected as a human (syphillis and all), it was once again for the whims of Wolfram and Hart, and just to manipulate Angel. And just when she finally was able to gain her own agency as a character—coming to terms with her past and remorse, and deciding that she wanted to live the rest of her life on her own terms, with cancer—that got taken away from her again. All to make to make Angel go dark.

And when her redemption arc did come, it was a vehicle to bring Connor into the world. Her ultimate remorse didn’t even from her own soul, it was the baby’s.

So she got fridged not once, but twice. To further along both Angel and Connor’s stories.

It feels like such a waste. Sticking with the human Darla could have been far more interesting and a complex trope subversion parallel to Angel’s redemption journey, rediscovering her on identity and/or creating a new one. But I guess redoing the pseudo-incest lesbian vampires is much more fun, right Whedon? Ugh.