- Utilitarianism
Aeryn: Augh stupid Microsoft Word! Supposed to be The Trial.
by Aeryn -5.25.05
[ aaeryn@blkswan.com ]
During my development of a new music video, I re-watched a lot of scenes in regard to Angel and Darla. I have to say this… WOW! Here I thought Spuffy was steamy and hot. Angel and Darla are way more… sexy and hot. I buy into this relationship over the others, cause damn, if you don’t believe me, go watch the bite/kiss in Dear Boy. Holy Hell!
It’s funny, Darla was resentful and hated Buffy for the place she held in Angel’s life, but hell, to me, Darla was his Achilles heel. During the Trails Angel had to face for her, she saw and felt what Angel was going through. Through the valet, Darla got something she never experienced before. Love, she had never experienced the full impact of love previously do to the lack of a soul, however now, she was able to experience the full impact of loving and being loved in return. After the inability to save Darla, she argued that it was her second chance to die, as she should have, a human. She accepted and wanted that. Darn that granddaughter of hers.
According to Joss however, vampires can love someone, “they can attach to someone, they can actually want to do things that will make that person happy in the way they know they would.” (Joss Whedon 3/1/01). I think that the soul helped Darla to feel the depth of love and a different form of love than she had when she was soulless. This was the first time that human Darla felt love and witnessed love. Love is sacrifice.
Let’s take a look at the Trail, shall we? The valet guy said that it wasn’t a equal trade. His soul for hers, when he was a Champion and did so much good, Darla was just a former vampire, he had a responsibility to the souls of the world. Looking back, Angel reacted the way we will see him react when it is Fred. “To Hell with the World.” He does not go forward with it in the future, but with Darla he did, which paved the way for Connor’s birth, Jasmine’s rebirth.
Ok, so if Connor was what was needed to bring about Jasmine, if Angel had not went through the Trail and have been resigned to let mortal Darla live out her remaining days, (which she ended up doing because they couldn’t give her a second life), then would Cordelia have ended up in the coma in Birthday? Probably, but we wouldn’t have had Skip offering to make her a half-demon. Cordy would have remained in a coma until her last vision killed her. Gee, I was hoping to find some way of having Cordy live, but there wasn’t after Doyle kissed her. That kiss was her death sentence. Wait, she could have lived if she had shucked Groo and gave him the visions, but that would have required her to live in Pylea as a Princess.
Back to the subject, by Angel putting Darla’s life above his own, he ended up where Doyle didn’t want him to be. Detached from the people he was there to help. It is easier to do something if you don’t think about how many innocents it will hurt. With Fred, he said to hell with the world, not thinking about every person between them and Illyria, but after Spike started talking, he realized that it was not what Fred would have wanted and it was something he could not do. I believe that thinking about the distance, and the sheer number it would affect, really helped him to take a moment and choose the right thing to do.
With Darla, Angel said do it, without hesitation. I admire that about him. To say that he was being selfish and thinking about himself, is hard, but as the paragraph above points out, he was that way. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it. I understand why he went through the Trail and did not bring Illyria back to the deeper well.
Utilitarianism is involves calculating the good or bad consequences of an action to determine the morality of that action. One of the central things explored through out the series and in philosophy is the amount of altruism seen through the use of utilitarianism. Team Angel not only say they are going to fight the good fight, but they actually go out and fight the good fight. I believe that Angel’s journey through the trails helped him to respond more utilitarian when actually faced with having to chose Fred over thousands of lives.
This is not something that is jumped to automatically, you have to put aside what you want, and focus on what is best for the most people. When making choices, we usually react emotionally. The utilitarianism is not emotion most of the time; it is clear, rational, logic. Unfortunately, it can be cold and deceiving, make it appear that the chooser does not care. Remember Angel coming back and telling Wesley that he let Fred die too? It did not mean that Angel did not care for Fred; it meant that he could not sacrifice thousands for one. This shows a maturity milestone for Angel if it is reflected back to the Trail and Darla.
With that, he did not care who would fight for the Powers that Be if he was to sacrifice his life for Darla’s. He was rash and thinking on pure emotion. He wanted to save Darla, he wanted to give her the chance that neither of them had, to live life and die as a human, to have the second chance. One could argue that by saving her, he was saving himself vicariously through her. Once it came to Fred, he reacted the same way, until Spike’s speech. It was then he was able to take the moment and focus on the choice and what it would mean to the innocents of the world.
It reminded me of the talk that Kate and Angel had once about innocents getting caught in the crossfire. What would happen to them? Are they trapped forever in the battle between good and evil? If he put his vendetta against Wolfram and Hart above his the lives of the innocents, then he would turn his back and detach himself from the world. This was warned about all through season one, get out there, and start living! He did this, but he learned from it and was able to use the lessons that he learned by making the mistake before.
Sometimes we make selfish choices; usually we do not know how the choices will immediately impact the world around us. I am glad that we are unaware to a point. It is difficult enough to make choices in the first place, but could you imagine if you had to weigh every possibility that existed first? When it comes to love, we often act immediately out of emotion that is ok. It is natural. We are selfish, we immediately want our love one close to us or alive as opposed to their needs or wishes. I know I have been selfish in the past. I guess the old saying is right, if you love something, let it go and if it returns to you, it was meant to be yours.
This is my last Divine Musing. Shocking, I know, but times changed and so do ideas. I will be continuing to write here at HMC, just not in a Divine Musing. It is nice to be able to say that I have written a column that people actually read occasionally. I been able to explore some ideas and shove my opinion down people’s throats, so what else could I ever ask for? Thanks for reading Divine Musings and giving me feedback. So in the words of Lorne, “Goodnight, Folks”
(25.05.2005, 13:21)