beccaelizabeth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccaelizabeth) wrote2005-08-11 12:40 pm
beccaelizabeth) wrote2005-08-11 12:40 pm
Entry tags:
What was Fred
Characters 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.