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Victim Triumphant -- uncut version

by

Jacqueline Lichtenberg


Below is the full text of the original submitted version of the article that eventually appeared in Five Seasons of Angel: Science Fiction And Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Vampire

I was originally asked for 3500 words and that's what I turned in.  About six months later, they came back to me wanting it sliced to 1500 words on a last minute deadline.  What is below makes some of the same points, but is to me an entirely different article than the one which was printed.  Judge from the published book for yourself. 

Here is a comment from a Review of the whole Five Seasons anthology by City of Angels website Staff Writer, Sue Grimshaw who at the time had read only the cut down article published in the book.

 

This enlightening trend and persecution theory continues in Victim Triumphant written by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, a novelist more usually associated with Star Trek fiction, as she boldly states that Angel's 'hero' status is one of the biggest misconceptions ever and in fact Angel isn't even a hero at all. To support her slightly controversial statement, Jacqueline compares Angel to perhaps the ultimate hero in the Whedonverse, Buffy, Vampyr Slayer Extraordinaire. "Her [Buffy's] heroism lies in her ability to take the cards she's dealt and refuse to play the hand," Jacqueline writes, "when faced with an unacceptable choice, she doesn't choose the lesser of two evils - she finds another way. Buffy is a hero because she makes her own rules."

This is not something that applies to Angel according to Jacqueline as she goes on to say, "In contrast, Angel's strategies rely on his ability to accept others' rules and play the hand he's dealt with. He's not any kind of hero. He is a very talented victim." Jacqueline's whole piece reflects this point of view as she suggests that Angel is less of a Champion for the cause and more a Champion of Victims. It's a very entertaining feature. Other essays that follow this kind of thematic debate include True Shanshu: Redemption Through Compassion, And The Journey of Cordelia Chase by Laura Ann Gilman, a feature which, as the title suggests, questions whether The Shanshu Prophecy was ever meant for Angel (or Spike for that matter) and was in fact really reserved for Queen C from Sunnydale. Angel: An Identity Crisis by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro who's background and expertise in folklore and vampire mythology leads to her having doubts as to whether Angel is actually a vampire at all!

Read the entire review at

 

 


Romantic Times Award winning author Jacqueline Lichtenberg brings many credentials to the discussion of Angel. She is the primary author of Star Trek Lives!, the Bantam paperback that revealed the existence of Star Trek fandom and its fanzines and touched off the explosion of fannish involvement in the television show. Star Trek Lives! presents her theory of why fans love Star Trek so much that they write stories about it. Her first published novel, House of Zeor, the first novel published in the legendary Sime~Gen Universe proved her theory has merit. In addition to her series of vampire short stories, she has a Vampire Romance published by BenBella Books titled Those of My Blood and also from BenBella Books, a companion sf vampire novel Dreamspy. She has two occult/sf novels in print, titled Molt Brother and City of a Million Legends. Topping off her qualifications to discuss Angel’s Nature is her more than 25 years as a Tarot and Astrology practitioner and teacher. She is author of The Biblical Tarot: Never Cross A Palm With Silver, and the sf/f reviewer for the Occult/New Age publication The Monthly Aspectarian. www.simegen.com/jl/ will provide details.

 

 

Angel: Seasons 1-5

Victim Triumphant

By

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

The commercials for the first season of Angel proclaim him a Hero. But do you believe everything commercials tell you?

I have been writing and selling sf/f for decades. Editor after editor has enforced the formula rules for the Classic SF/F Action Genre Hero onto my lead characters and so I’ve learned and taught that commercial formula. Angel breaks the rules.

Angel is not a Classic Hero in the sense that Buffy is. Angel is the exact opposite of a Classic Hero, a victim. But even as a victim, Angel breaks the rules, for he is a heroic Champion who has become the Victim Triumphant.

Oh, there is Nno doubt Angel is the star of the show, thus the "Lead Character". He has the most lines, the most scenes, and the best close-ups. But he’s not the leader of this ensemble as the Classic Hero in action/adventure SF/F must always be.

And there’s the oddest thing about Angel. It is not typical of ensemble shows. This ensemble does not have a Captain, a leader, a Hero.

In general, Tthere are two basic plots that support produce the Classic Action Hero heroic-action formula show such as Angel. Plot #1. "Hero gets his fanny caught in a bear trap and has his adventures getting it out." And Plot #2 "A likeable Hero struggles to surmount seemingly overwhelming odds toward a worthwhile goal."

Angel does have his fanny caught in a bear trap – being a vampire at all is a bear trap, but a vampire with a soul, now that’s one saw-toothed bear trap!

He has occasionally expressed a desire to "redeem himself" so he won’t go to Hell when he dies. He even does become human at one point, and gives it up to save Buffy. But overall, week after week, his efforts are not focused, goal directed, and determined as any Classic Action Hero’s must be.

Remember Forever Knight? Nick Knight’s goal, pursued relentlessly with scheme after harebrained scheme, over centuries of unrelenting obsessive effort, was to become human again.

Compare that to Angel’s occasional effort to get out of his trap, easily diverted, and forgotten in the next episode Angel has his fanny in a bear trap, to be sure, and he knows it. And he’d like to get his fanny out. But – and here’s the "but" which disqualifies him as an action Hero, -- Angel does not pursue his goal, organize his crew to pursue that goal, and spend every waking moment scheming, researching, striving relentlessly toward that goal.

When the goal is achieved, and he becomes human, he sacrifices that humanity to save Buffy – which is the nobility of spirit we require in our Heroes. If he had refused to do so, he’d have become Evil in our view. But that little taste of being human didn’t re-focus all his efforts on that goal, which is also what is required of a Hero.

Now check out the other situation plot that produces classic action heroes.

"A likeable hero" – OK, Angel is definitely likeable. Actually I’d say Angel is loveable. "Struggles to surmount seemingly overwhelming odds" -- The armies of the supernatural evil which Angel Investigations is at war against are definitely "seemingly overwhelming odds." And nobody on this earth would argue about the worthwhileness Angel’s of his goal in that battle is definitely worthwhile.

But is it Angel’s own personal goal that he was born to pursue? Is it his personal goal? Is fighting Evil the burning ambition of his whole existence? How did he acquire this goal –did he choose it voluntarily out of the true depths of his personality?

Notice that in plot#1, "Hero GETS his fanny" – the beginning of the story happens because of an action or choice of the Hero, or during pursuit of another goal (which must not be forgotten while dealing with the bear trap).

Notice that in plot #2, the Hero chooseshas targeted a worthwhile goal.

In both cases, the goal is the Hero’s idea and/or the result of the Hero’s actions taken because of the fabric of his personality. The Hero drives relentlessly toward an independently chosen goal and makes his own rules. That’s what makes him/her the hero of the story. The events must be personal to the hero, so the events of the story happen to that hero, not to others, but to the person whose story this is.

None of the other characters in the ensemble have a goal toward which they are striving relentlessly, and which causes the events of the story-arc. Nobody in this ensemble caused the Hellmouth to open, or made it their life’s work to dig up all the evil from other dimensions and destroy it. Nobody here saw the Evil rising and recognized the purpose of their existence was to vanquish this Evil. Yet fighting Creatures of Darkness is what they spend most of their time doing. None of these characters are the Hero of this show. This is a show that does not have a Hero – because it doesn’t have a Hero.

But it does have victims.

Angel is a perfect example of a victim, a veritable paragon of victim-hood, a true role-model for those beaten down by life’s events. Angel is so easy to sympathize and empathize with, and so very easy to admire for his courage, honesty, integrity, and loyalty, that we get deeply caught up in his problems.

Some of the most famous victims in all of literature are found in Assuming most readers of this book are familiar with Greek Mythology

 



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