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Date Posted: 02:25:53 11/05/05 Sat
Author: Ninerva
Subject: More thoughts on the Shanshu
In reply to: Sunshine 's message, "Re: Angel's hero status" on 11:10:09 11/04/05 Fri

I've been following your discussion, I hope you don't mind me putting my two-penneth worth in.

The Shanshu really can seem to be interpretted so many ways, as is the nature of prophesies I suppose. [prophesy = exploding head]:-) By the end of S5, after the signing away, I was as disillusioned by the idea of a Shanshu as Angel was. It seemed to set out a journey, with the promise, or reward at the end. It seemed to say that if you do A,B and C you will not only recieve absolution, but that you will be rewarded. That's great, except you have to have faith that there is some outside power with the capability and jurisdiction to judge you and then reward you. That would be the PTB I suppose. Over the course of the series though Angel lost faith in the PTB. It sort of went along two lines, the "I will never do enough to find redemption" and "Who are the PTB to judge me anyway, I find them flawed". Through S3 to S5, which I tend to think of as one long arc, Angel lost faith in himself and the PTB, so it's hardly surprising that the Shanshu became meaningless to him.

In the end he had to find his own path, one he could believe in, one that did not rely on the PTB, one that relied on his own judgement of himself, not the judgement of others. So the signing away was symbolic from a thematic point of view, in that it was the point of the story where he, having been led by a destiny dictated by outside forces for so long, cut the final strings. It was significant from a character point of view, because he was giving up the idea of reward and redemption as dictated by the terms of the Shanshu and acting because he believed it was right from a broader perspective, not just the perspective of his own search for absolution.

The idea of Connor as his Shanshu is a very interesting one. Connor as his reward. Except then they took his reward away, taken away as a result of the very sins he was looking for redemption from. That Holtz, one of his victims, took Connor tells me that this was not the kind of redemption that was implied by the Shanshu. It tells Angel that he can never be trully forgiven for what he did. Then it's implied that Connor's very existance was the result of manipulation by an ex-PTB. If there was ever an argument that the PTB aren't 'all that', then Jasmine is it. By the end of S4 his connection to the PTB, both actual (in Cordy's case) and spiritual were gone. There was no reward, the Shanshu was meaningless, no matter what he did he was going to hell. That's what he told Spike, that's what he believed then. Of course that isn't the end of the story, when Pandora's box was opened hope remained inside.

Somewhere inside Angel there was still hope, he just couldn't define what it was he hoped for anymore. Not reward, not redemption, I think he hoped for freedom. In S5 he was trapped, literally by the contract with WR&H, and spiritually by his own despair and loss of passion. He had to find a way to break free from that. In my mind, if there is one defining instinct that makes humans human, it's that idea of freedom that we all carry in our hearts.

Hope this makes sense, I'm starting to ramble, so I'd better stop now.

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