Post by jibberish on Jun 3, 2004 20:08:07 GMT
here is a rough plot synopsis that i thought up last night. it incorporates several ideas floating around the board right now and few new things i conjured up. i think it works fairly well thematically too. it also incorporates the spilitting of fred and illyria, on which i went into detail in the Characters\Fred thread, though that is only a sub-plot and i won't go into detail here.
the basic premise revolves around angel's conclusions towards the end of S5, that they CAN'T win against the senior parteners or even in the fight against evil, all they can do is fight. with that as a given, the question then becomes what were the motives behind angel's initial calling by the PTB to be a force of good? more importantly, why would the only contact he has with them all of season 5 be to place him in a situation where he would likely die?it doesn't entirely make sense...unless the vision he got was fake. with the concentration of evil in wolfram and hart and the gang's clear vulnerability all season it wouldn't have been difficult at all to fake a vision. but who would fake the vision? and why? i'll get to that later.
so why would the powers NOT want angel to destroy the circle?--aside from the impending chaos, which angel justified as being better in the long run compared to the crescendo of the full apocalypse unassuaged. well, it seems that angel and the Powers were fighting different wars. the Powers fought for stability and balance rather than victory. why else would they choose a singular hero to go against a multi-dimensional evil. why else would they give him the small battles through the visions rather than place him initially in a position to do significant damage. did he need time to grow first? no, his only growth towards the end was towards moral ambiguity and ended with him murdering an innocent. that's not the good fight.
so we begin in the alley(written in flashback perferably). our three heros fighting to their last ounce of strength as a sphere of energy forms around them, enveloping them entirely. fade to white, and they have disapeared. they end up in another dimension and learn that they have been given a free pass by the Powers to start over, their work is done(a shanshu of sorts). after much debate over the posibility of a normal life, they decide to return to earth (illyria not understanding what they've been given, spike not liking that he couldn't finish the fight, and angel concerned over what evils they had unleashed on the world...and none of them wanting to be held captive by the Powers who were giving no answers). think of it as a nicer version of the holding cell that lindsey and gunn were in. the three of them forcefully leave against the will of the Powers.
they return to a world that is completely foreign to them--a few days later their time, but months earth time. chaos has fallen and the guilt that angel feels over having caused such destruction weighs heavy on him(instant mission). angel falls back into the only thing he knows, helping the helpless, with spike alongside for the sarcastic banter and illyria somewhat in tow(neither on board with angel's mission or against it). it isn't long before they meet up with others, and establish something of a base of operations in a building of more modest appearance than their previous employ.
with angel's return come demons looking to both kill and worship him: bounty hunters seeking to lay claim to the price on his head for killing sebasis, former demon slaves seeking out angel as a savior who rid them of their masters, and demon armies swearing fealty to the destroyer of the black thorn.
the chaos heightens as conner returns, his illusion of a normal life now shattered. he reveals that his family died the night the demons arose and that he blames himself for not being able to save them, not angel. conner doesn't return to the bitterness he embraced before, but instead takes his despair and channels it into fighting to save others(just like angel does -- he must be growing up). alone, conner goes after Sfarik, the demon general that killed his family, and though angel tries to reach him in time, conner dies at Sfarik's hands. needless to say, angel kills Sferik.
out of the shadows walks Adeline (a role enivsioned for Jewel Staite of Firefly), Sferik's master. she was born a demon/human half-breed, the spawn of an ill conceived ploy of a vengence demon and her mark. she came up as an orphan in the gutters of europe until she was turned into a vampire in her twenties. she thanks angel for his help in dispatching the black thorn and reveals that SHE created the vision, not the Powers. angel tries to fight her but her mixed heritage makes her a formidable foe...ie: he get's his butt kicked.
angel goes looking for answers. enter "the informant" a.k.a. lorne, moonlighting as a conduit for the Powers on this plane of existance. he explains the real nature of good and evil, that each can only be defined in the presence of the other. they are equally important conponents to the way this world functions and like two sides of a scale, they cancel each other out. evil seeks to constantly grow, while good must seek to keep evil from growing, not to destroy it. lorne tells them that when they killed the black thorn, they screwed up bad and tied the hands of the Powers in this plane until the scales balance again. the Powers pulled angel and company out becos they didn't want them making things worse.
all the while, illyria has grown increasingly agitated and has begun to lose her mind. fred's soul is re-emerging and the group uses the Crest of Alarion to split the two souls, and force illyria in a new shell. the separation is incomplete however and portions of each are shared in the other. illyria begins to fully understand human emotion, while fred is given the potential to function inside of the shell. fred's recovery is slow and painful because her body will not work the way it used to and the life she has returned to is nothing compared to who she once was.
Adeline's main goal in dethroning the circle of the black thorn was to take their place as the will of the Senior Partners on earth. she needs the Crest of Alarion to channel the energy into her body, so she deceives illyria, convincing her to betray everyone and bring it to her. the final ritual/battle takes place in the finale.
lorne, as the voice of the Powers, wants Adeline to reestablish the link to the senior partners to bring back balance to the world. angel, on the other hand, refuses to be convinced that not fighting evil is the right course. in the final battle angel pummels adeline with witty dialogue and also his fists, stopping her from channeling the energy of the Senior Partners but not before she mortally wounds lorne. lorne empathizes with Angel, how it goes against their very nature to help evil, but he tells him that it's the right thing to do. this is the point where angel has to decide where to put his faith...in the powers, or in his instincts.
angel goes with his instincts and refuses and kills Adeline.
lorne takes up the crest. angel tries to stop him, but lorne dissmisses him magically and uses the crest to channel the energy of the senior parteners into himself, connecting and canceling out both influences over the world, leaving what evil and what good are currently on earth to fight amongst themselves.
it ends with a big bang, lorne gets a great death scene, and the fight can continue (only without major non-corporeal influence). it stays true to the theme of duality: PTB/SeniorParteners, angel/angelus, fred/illyria and even adeline's dual demonic heritage. it answers the question of what happens when you buck the system as well.
obviously i only hit the major plot points, so the pacing doesn't read right, but there's plenty of room for additional characters and expanded arcs. the death of conner isn't necessary. lorne's sacrifice is.
the part that i'm wary of is the nature of the PTB and whether or not they would have that view of only holding evil at bay. i know there was a lot of exposition on the PTB early in the series, but i don't have that reference handy. anyways, let the mud fly!
the basic premise revolves around angel's conclusions towards the end of S5, that they CAN'T win against the senior parteners or even in the fight against evil, all they can do is fight. with that as a given, the question then becomes what were the motives behind angel's initial calling by the PTB to be a force of good? more importantly, why would the only contact he has with them all of season 5 be to place him in a situation where he would likely die?it doesn't entirely make sense...unless the vision he got was fake. with the concentration of evil in wolfram and hart and the gang's clear vulnerability all season it wouldn't have been difficult at all to fake a vision. but who would fake the vision? and why? i'll get to that later.
so why would the powers NOT want angel to destroy the circle?--aside from the impending chaos, which angel justified as being better in the long run compared to the crescendo of the full apocalypse unassuaged. well, it seems that angel and the Powers were fighting different wars. the Powers fought for stability and balance rather than victory. why else would they choose a singular hero to go against a multi-dimensional evil. why else would they give him the small battles through the visions rather than place him initially in a position to do significant damage. did he need time to grow first? no, his only growth towards the end was towards moral ambiguity and ended with him murdering an innocent. that's not the good fight.
so we begin in the alley(written in flashback perferably). our three heros fighting to their last ounce of strength as a sphere of energy forms around them, enveloping them entirely. fade to white, and they have disapeared. they end up in another dimension and learn that they have been given a free pass by the Powers to start over, their work is done(a shanshu of sorts). after much debate over the posibility of a normal life, they decide to return to earth (illyria not understanding what they've been given, spike not liking that he couldn't finish the fight, and angel concerned over what evils they had unleashed on the world...and none of them wanting to be held captive by the Powers who were giving no answers). think of it as a nicer version of the holding cell that lindsey and gunn were in. the three of them forcefully leave against the will of the Powers.
they return to a world that is completely foreign to them--a few days later their time, but months earth time. chaos has fallen and the guilt that angel feels over having caused such destruction weighs heavy on him(instant mission). angel falls back into the only thing he knows, helping the helpless, with spike alongside for the sarcastic banter and illyria somewhat in tow(neither on board with angel's mission or against it). it isn't long before they meet up with others, and establish something of a base of operations in a building of more modest appearance than their previous employ.
with angel's return come demons looking to both kill and worship him: bounty hunters seeking to lay claim to the price on his head for killing sebasis, former demon slaves seeking out angel as a savior who rid them of their masters, and demon armies swearing fealty to the destroyer of the black thorn.
the chaos heightens as conner returns, his illusion of a normal life now shattered. he reveals that his family died the night the demons arose and that he blames himself for not being able to save them, not angel. conner doesn't return to the bitterness he embraced before, but instead takes his despair and channels it into fighting to save others(just like angel does -- he must be growing up). alone, conner goes after Sfarik, the demon general that killed his family, and though angel tries to reach him in time, conner dies at Sfarik's hands. needless to say, angel kills Sferik.
out of the shadows walks Adeline (a role enivsioned for Jewel Staite of Firefly), Sferik's master. she was born a demon/human half-breed, the spawn of an ill conceived ploy of a vengence demon and her mark. she came up as an orphan in the gutters of europe until she was turned into a vampire in her twenties. she thanks angel for his help in dispatching the black thorn and reveals that SHE created the vision, not the Powers. angel tries to fight her but her mixed heritage makes her a formidable foe...ie: he get's his butt kicked.
angel goes looking for answers. enter "the informant" a.k.a. lorne, moonlighting as a conduit for the Powers on this plane of existance. he explains the real nature of good and evil, that each can only be defined in the presence of the other. they are equally important conponents to the way this world functions and like two sides of a scale, they cancel each other out. evil seeks to constantly grow, while good must seek to keep evil from growing, not to destroy it. lorne tells them that when they killed the black thorn, they screwed up bad and tied the hands of the Powers in this plane until the scales balance again. the Powers pulled angel and company out becos they didn't want them making things worse.
all the while, illyria has grown increasingly agitated and has begun to lose her mind. fred's soul is re-emerging and the group uses the Crest of Alarion to split the two souls, and force illyria in a new shell. the separation is incomplete however and portions of each are shared in the other. illyria begins to fully understand human emotion, while fred is given the potential to function inside of the shell. fred's recovery is slow and painful because her body will not work the way it used to and the life she has returned to is nothing compared to who she once was.
Adeline's main goal in dethroning the circle of the black thorn was to take their place as the will of the Senior Partners on earth. she needs the Crest of Alarion to channel the energy into her body, so she deceives illyria, convincing her to betray everyone and bring it to her. the final ritual/battle takes place in the finale.
lorne, as the voice of the Powers, wants Adeline to reestablish the link to the senior partners to bring back balance to the world. angel, on the other hand, refuses to be convinced that not fighting evil is the right course. in the final battle angel pummels adeline with witty dialogue and also his fists, stopping her from channeling the energy of the Senior Partners but not before she mortally wounds lorne. lorne empathizes with Angel, how it goes against their very nature to help evil, but he tells him that it's the right thing to do. this is the point where angel has to decide where to put his faith...in the powers, or in his instincts.
angel goes with his instincts and refuses and kills Adeline.
lorne takes up the crest. angel tries to stop him, but lorne dissmisses him magically and uses the crest to channel the energy of the senior parteners into himself, connecting and canceling out both influences over the world, leaving what evil and what good are currently on earth to fight amongst themselves.
it ends with a big bang, lorne gets a great death scene, and the fight can continue (only without major non-corporeal influence). it stays true to the theme of duality: PTB/SeniorParteners, angel/angelus, fred/illyria and even adeline's dual demonic heritage. it answers the question of what happens when you buck the system as well.
obviously i only hit the major plot points, so the pacing doesn't read right, but there's plenty of room for additional characters and expanded arcs. the death of conner isn't necessary. lorne's sacrifice is.
the part that i'm wary of is the nature of the PTB and whether or not they would have that view of only holding evil at bay. i know there was a lot of exposition on the PTB early in the series, but i don't have that reference handy. anyways, let the mud fly!
;D