What was Fred
Aug. 11th, 2005 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethCharacters are always two things at once - an imitation of a person, and a tool for storytelling. They represent something to the story, have a specific role. Hero, sidekick, villain. Femme fatale, damsel in distress. MarySue.
So I looked at Lilah and Fred, what they were to Wesley's story, how that explains his attraction to them.
Lilah was the femme fatale of Angel.
Now a femme fatale is two things - a person, usually female, with the whole package of possibilities that every person has. And a story tool, representing darkness and temptation, specifically temptation to transgress and betray.
Lilah got gypped as a person because she was always being used as the story tool.
And I was wondering, what attracted Wes to her? Who she was, or what she represented?
Well, we never got to see him learn much about who she was, so...
On the other side of the coin there is Fred. The canon character I've most often seen called a MarySue. Because as soon as she turns up everyone falls for her, she changes everyone's behaviour, and incidentally she's so brilliant she can invent anything.
Fred is also two things, character person with all that entails, and role in the story.
What we know of her as a person doesn't seem enough to get everyone gaga about her. She's sweet and a little bit crazy, and kind of pretty if you like them skinny. But the way the others react to her seems disproportionate.
I think because of what she represents in the story.
When Angel saw Buffy in the sun on the steps outside her school being called as a Slayer, he fell in love with her. Love at first sight. And he has a really sweet speech about how it was because he could see her heart. But I don't actually buy that.
Someone came to him and gave him a purpose. A hope of redemption. And Buffy, sunshine and Slayer, was the embodiment of that. So suddenly she is all he can think about, and of course that is love at first sight.
Fred, in the story, is the normal life, the girl in the sunshine. The dream of home.
Okay, so when we find her she is hiding in a cave. Doesn't so much sound normal or homey. But its a nice welcoming cave that doesn't kick Angel out however much of a monster he is being. That part, homelike.
The second thing we learn about her, the episode that shows us who she is in the regular world, is all about how normal her parents are and how no other person at AI has that. To the point they couldn't recognise it when they saw it. So Fred's distinguishing characteristic is she is normal.
The other thing is she is a scientist. All about the mind. Rational.
And yeah, crazy, kind of looks like contradicting that. But she went crazy when she went to the magic land, and when she came back she brought new knowledge. She made a scientific theory out of it all. And her survival in that crazy magic land wasn't based on magic or muscle, just brains. So, that is what she represents.
So everyone falls in love with the dream of home and the possibility of the rational mind understanding this world they are in.
Wesley especially falls for that aspect of her. I can't see that he falls for Fred the person. I mean he spends so much time elsewhere after she arrives, I don't know as he *knows* Fred the person. Besides, he loved her before he knew her. How can that be about her, then? He has an idea he loves and Fred fit into it.
And this was why Fred had to die.
Because the normal world, the dream of home, the possibility of science dealing with the world, that all shatters when the dark things in Angel's world get too close.
Looking at Fred as a person, that makes no sense, because she's been dealing with that stuff already for years. And she isn't a dream, she is a people, dreams of her own.
But for AI to end up in the darkest place, all those dreams have to die, and that was what Fred was to the story.
Looking at Wes and Fred as people, there was no particular reason for them to not be in love. Or be in love. Really, I was never sold on that. But looking at Fred as a story tool then that love is sort of a disaster. To make it work, Wes would have to live that dream. And either drop out of the heroic world entirely, or give up on it and go be a hero again. Maybe from some thing where too much suffering happens because he quits - then he'd be in love with the dream still, always wanting to go back to it. Probably think of Fred as the starcrossed love of his life. (Buffy). Or because he finds it doesn't really fit. And that would involve falling out of love with the dream.
But possibly in love with Fred. The real one. If he could see her.
So I looked at Lilah and Fred, what they were to Wesley's story, how that explains his attraction to them.
Lilah was the femme fatale of Angel.
Now a femme fatale is two things - a person, usually female, with the whole package of possibilities that every person has. And a story tool, representing darkness and temptation, specifically temptation to transgress and betray.
Lilah got gypped as a person because she was always being used as the story tool.
And I was wondering, what attracted Wes to her? Who she was, or what she represented?
Well, we never got to see him learn much about who she was, so...
On the other side of the coin there is Fred. The canon character I've most often seen called a MarySue. Because as soon as she turns up everyone falls for her, she changes everyone's behaviour, and incidentally she's so brilliant she can invent anything.
Fred is also two things, character person with all that entails, and role in the story.
What we know of her as a person doesn't seem enough to get everyone gaga about her. She's sweet and a little bit crazy, and kind of pretty if you like them skinny. But the way the others react to her seems disproportionate.
I think because of what she represents in the story.
When Angel saw Buffy in the sun on the steps outside her school being called as a Slayer, he fell in love with her. Love at first sight. And he has a really sweet speech about how it was because he could see her heart. But I don't actually buy that.
Someone came to him and gave him a purpose. A hope of redemption. And Buffy, sunshine and Slayer, was the embodiment of that. So suddenly she is all he can think about, and of course that is love at first sight.
Fred, in the story, is the normal life, the girl in the sunshine. The dream of home.
Okay, so when we find her she is hiding in a cave. Doesn't so much sound normal or homey. But its a nice welcoming cave that doesn't kick Angel out however much of a monster he is being. That part, homelike.
The second thing we learn about her, the episode that shows us who she is in the regular world, is all about how normal her parents are and how no other person at AI has that. To the point they couldn't recognise it when they saw it. So Fred's distinguishing characteristic is she is normal.
The other thing is she is a scientist. All about the mind. Rational.
And yeah, crazy, kind of looks like contradicting that. But she went crazy when she went to the magic land, and when she came back she brought new knowledge. She made a scientific theory out of it all. And her survival in that crazy magic land wasn't based on magic or muscle, just brains. So, that is what she represents.
So everyone falls in love with the dream of home and the possibility of the rational mind understanding this world they are in.
Wesley especially falls for that aspect of her. I can't see that he falls for Fred the person. I mean he spends so much time elsewhere after she arrives, I don't know as he *knows* Fred the person. Besides, he loved her before he knew her. How can that be about her, then? He has an idea he loves and Fred fit into it.
And this was why Fred had to die.
Because the normal world, the dream of home, the possibility of science dealing with the world, that all shatters when the dark things in Angel's world get too close.
Looking at Fred as a person, that makes no sense, because she's been dealing with that stuff already for years. And she isn't a dream, she is a people, dreams of her own.
But for AI to end up in the darkest place, all those dreams have to die, and that was what Fred was to the story.
Looking at Wes and Fred as people, there was no particular reason for them to not be in love. Or be in love. Really, I was never sold on that. But looking at Fred as a story tool then that love is sort of a disaster. To make it work, Wes would have to live that dream. And either drop out of the heroic world entirely, or give up on it and go be a hero again. Maybe from some thing where too much suffering happens because he quits - then he'd be in love with the dream still, always wanting to go back to it. Probably think of Fred as the starcrossed love of his life. (Buffy). Or because he finds it doesn't really fit. And that would involve falling out of love with the dream.
But possibly in love with Fred. The real one. If he could see her.
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Fred, Wes and Lilah
Date: 2005-08-11 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-11 01:17 pm (UTC)"But for AI to end up in the darkest place, all those dreams have to die, and that was what Fred was to the story."
Angel lost all his friends in S5. Including Buffy. He really was left alone. So, how does he get his dreams back? Be his own person, instead of the 'hero'everyone sees him as?
I read an interesting article in AARP magazine (for people over 50 - yes, I'm old) about how for many there is a 'midlife' crisis which is actually very liberating and people get back to the dreams of their youth. Dreams they had set aside to raise kids, make a living, etc. A reassessment of their life goals.
I think Angel was finding his way to actually 'being' who he was meant to be. I wonder how much darker he would've become before emerging on the other side.
Really, really want S6. A lot.
Wes, Fred & Lilah
Date: 2005-08-11 02:49 pm (UTC)I believe that falling in love is most usually a projection of role in a person's life story--the one they tell themselves about their lives, or the one they're living unconsciously, or both. Only over time, with knowledge and intimacy, can we find out who the real person is and whether or not we can love that real person. And success in relationships often correlates to how closely the story we think we're living is to the story we are actually living.
Don't know if this makes any sense, as I am rather brain-dead this morning, but wanted to share what your thoughts had prompted in my thoughts.
Jan
Re: Wes, Fred & Lilah
Date: 2005-08-11 04:19 pm (UTC)makes sense
I'd agree..
Date: 2005-08-15 10:37 pm (UTC)Still thinking on her death as a "loss of dreams of home and normalcy" thing, as I'm not sure it quite fits: I like the way you portray them falling for her as she represents that: but to me, she showed that "normal" and "home" is what you make it, in the middle of whatever hell is busting loose around you. That you can be aware of the darkness and the Big Fight and still keep a sense of joy, of "home."
She and Wes take time to make googlie-eyes at each other over the romance of a roasting BEM nest that she's just set on fire: normal, and sweet, and yet surreal.
Huh. She's also the protector of "home" in that whenever a betrayal occurs, she is the fiery goddess of vengeance. Tasering Connor. Going forth to kill her professor. She is most outraged by a betrayal of trust, by a violation of the sanctity of a "home", perhaps because "home" is so much more a fragile and tenuous idea in their world.
... which makes it all the more odd that she was protective of Wes, after he'd stolen Connor, now that I think about it.
*wanders further afield, all delightedly thinkful, and stuff*