Comics wank, must be... a day ending in y

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So, angearia, who has once again been a VERY BAD GIRL over at Whedonesque, linked to this thread about the Dark Horse "announcement" that they are maybe acquiring the rights to the Angel series or something. As usual, there is wild speculation about it, all of which is pretty ridiculous, given that we have zero details about what it means or even what actually is happening. All I can really do is roll my eyes at the fact that Dark Horse STILL has not done anything about the unmitigated incompetence that is their PR department.

However, the comments on that thread brought up something I thought was interesting. God only knows what it has to do with licensing, but there was discussion about whether or not Season 8 should have included some backstory about Connor and the other Angel characters.

Some people said that such a conversation has no place in S8, since most of the Buffy characters don't even know who Angel's people are anymore, and there wasn't really an opportune time for Angel to explain to Buffy exactly how he acquired a son, nor would it be in his best interest to do so, if he wants Buffy to trust him. Not to mention the fact that there likely would be a licensing issue preventing them from mentioning any Angel character who did not originate on Buffy, so there's a good possibility they couldn't mention Connor even if they wanted to.

Others argued that, without that information, it is impossible to understand Angel's character, since in Angel we were led to believe that Connor was the most important person in the world to Angel, and it's hard to believe that he would willingly destroy a world that has his friends and especially his son still in it.

I agree with both of those things.

Setting aside the fact that S8 isn't over, and we could yet get such an explanation, I think this illustrates exactly why Angel as Twilight was a bad storytelling decision. Much like Willow's appearance in Angel S4 and Angel's appearance in Buffy S7, there really isn't space to fill in everything that's been happening to the character in the other series. But that doesn't negate the fact that these characters do have entire lives going on elsewhere, and those things affect them. A good writer doesn't just ignore character development because it doesn't fit into the story he wants to tell.

IMO, if they can't figure out how to portray a crossover character in a way that is both in character and does not require elaborate backstory explanations that bog down the story, then they shouldn't use that character. Period. Come up with a different story that's more workable.

Incidentally, I think the crossovers worked a lot better early on, before too many changes put the two series on increasingly divergent paths. It was easier to provide exposition when the characters mostly knew each other and not much had happened since they'd last seen each other. Once both series brought in new characters and major plot developments, the necessary exposition becomes far too unwieldy, so the choice is either abandon the idea of crossovers or ignore important developments because you can't explain them properly - or stick to characters (like Faith) whose backstory doesn't require a lot of explanation.

Comments

[agnes-bean.livejournal.com]

Honestly, at this point, I hesitate to say even that much.

Lol, all of your points are completely fair. I really just kind of close my eyes and handwave all of that stuff because, of course, you're right (and I was really bothered by the Jasmine plot-line for that reason). But at the same time, they can't really NOT be the same verse, since there is crossover, and ugh. Maybe Angel!LA is actually a slightly different dimension, and all the highways in are portals that anyone can travel through, and nobody notices?

I have to admit, it cracks me up that you used this as your example, because when I started watching Torchwood, one of my first complaints was that Jack was completely different from when he was on Doctor Who.

At least they have an in-universe explanation for that, though -- his being burned by the Doctor, and then the hundred or so years he lived before Torchwood started. Definitely an adjustment, but as a viewer I feel like, I at least have a sense of WHY he acts so differently. Whereas with the Buffy/Angel crossovers, I'm left going what? But...what? YMMV, of course, but at least Doctor Who/Torchwood TRIES.

That's what was really disappointing for me watching Angel and trying to reconcile it with Buffy -- there was so clearly no effort put into making them consistent. Like, with the Willow thing, even a throw away line, or hell, Willow acting twitchy about it -- ANYTHING really -- would have made me feel better. It wouldn't have made Willow being an uber-witch suddenly in-character, but it at least would have made me feel like the writers had put some thought into the matter.

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Here's my theory: at some point, all the magic and altering of realities broke the universe into two different dimensions - both dimensions have all the same people, but events do not quite line up. Thus, when we're watching Buffy, we're watching one version of events, in which the Angel characters exist, but events did not happen exactly as we saw on Angel.

When we watch Angel, we're watching a different version of events, in which the Buffy characters exist, but again, not quite as we saw them on Buffy.

Definitely an adjustment, but as a viewer I feel like, I at least have a sense of WHY he acts so differently.

True. I think my reaction had more to do with the fact that I didn't like New Jack, and missed the one I loved on Who, but it didn't help that it took quite a while to figure out why he's so different.

[agnes-bean.livejournal.com]

I like your theory! It makes sense, or at least more sense than any other kind of fanwanking I can think of...

True. I think my reaction had more to do with the fact that I didn't like New Jack, and missed the one I loved on Who, but it didn't help that it took quite a while to figure out why he's so different.

That totally makes sense. I didn't want Torchwood until after I'd watched Doctor Who S1-4, and that didn't happen until last summer, so I had a sense of how different Jack was going in, both from his later Who appearances, and from spoilers, so I'm not surprised I didn't have as strong a reaction to the difference.

Other than that initial change, though, I definitely think Who-verse does a decent job with crossovers -- especially taking into account the different series tones (which -- sure, Angel is supposed to be darker than Buffy, but it is nothing compared to the total different aims of Doctor Who and Torchwood, not to mention Sarah Jane).

I can't think of any other series (that I've watched) that have crossovers, though I feel like there must be some...

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I can't think of any other series (that I've watched) that have crossovers, though I feel like there must be some...

I can't, either. It seems to happen more often these days in legal/cop/CSI dramas, you know? Solving a case that requires outside help. But I don't watch any of those shows...