A Nerdy Addendum to the Notes on Amends

[2maggie2]

We ended up chewing up some of the word count on theology and philosophy.  It didn't make the cut, but for those interested, here's the lost section of the notes to Amends.  The main set of notes can be found here.

A Nerdy Addendum to the Notes on Buffy 2.10 Amends: In Which We Blather

Comments

[local_max]

Ooh I'm glad we kept this, if only as an addendum. When LJ was down a few minutes ago I checked the document and saw you had cut it, and was sorry to have lost it! :)

[aycheb]

I think Joss has built a very good picture of what a Christian would think the world would look like if it had no redeemer.
Isn't it simpler than that? Joss has built a very good picture of what the world looks like when there is no redeemer. Unless you're specifically talking about Angel's reaction to it, Angel being the type who if there were no God would feel it necessary to invent one. Other more Jossish characters, Buffy for instance don't seem to feel that need.

[genericmarn]

Starting with the nerdy stuff, 'cause that's where I live...

I totally agree, Joss is playing with the idea of a world where there is no Christian redeemer. In fact, from that point of view, consider the perversity of this episode.

Buffy's "I know what you did. You did it to me," parallels the biblical "whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me" so closely that they're almost the same quote. Joss explicitly sets up Buffy as the messianic figure here. (In other episodes, too, surely).

But Buffy doesn't actually redeem Angel, and she can't offer him forgiveness on behalf of the world. Worse, she represents the most significant threat against his ability to be good.

When you add into the mix that the First Evil may actually be responsible for sending the snow that convinces Angel not to kill himself and relieves him from making hard decisions about whether he's redeemable, this episode is diabolical.