Buffy and Angel are the pawns of the Twilight prophecy, destined to become the gods of the new universe. They start glowing when they come close together as a sign of that. Angel describes it as "their bodies singing" and talks about feeling "joy". Maybe it is a poke at Stephanie Meyer's 'Twilight', but it also seems to be plot-relevant
I have no problem with the idea of the glow making them feel happy, even euphoric; it's the idea that it's somehow overriding their decision-making power that I disagree with. Like you said yourself, Buffy doesn't act afterwards like someone who was coerced into anything. She discovered that being physically close to Angel made her body glow and 'sing', and decided that she wanted to experiment with that rather than flee far away.
"I'm terrified you'll go. You'll leave before we have a chance to explore what this really is, this glow. What if, just once, the right thing to do is also the most wonderful?"
In reality, I think that Angel is responsible for what happened as a result of his actions.
Which appears to be that the bad guys wasted a year in elaborate schemes to "undermine Buffy's moral certainty" rather than just launching an all-out attack on her in issue one, like General Voll originally wanted.
From Buffy's POV, I interpret these panels the following way: "We found Twilight's lair, discovered that he is Angel, so there is nothing to worry about. Angel said he did the right thing - he knows best."
But that's not what happened. She discovered that Twilight is Angel and felt furiously angry and betrayed, not that "there is nothing to worry about". She tried to kill him. She told him to shut up and stop lying to her. She screamed at him, "Why did you put us through this fucking hell for the past year?" - and when does Buffy ever swear like that? She told him to get away from her.
But all the time this was happening, her body was starting to glow in response to his, and Angel was telling her that it wasn't so simple, that there was more going on than she thought. And reluctantly, despite herself, she believed him - because after all, her body really was starting to glow. And she'd somehow acquired superpowers; she could fly, she was almost invulnerable. How? What was going on? Angel seemed to understand more than anyone else, and like I said at the start, Buffy's usually pretty good at working out when someone is on her side or not. When she can trust someone.
Angel might not know "best", but in this particular situation he clearly knows more than Buffy, or Giles, or Willow do. And to quote the commentary from 'Lessons':
DAVID SOLOMON: You know, there's Buffy right there. You see a hole, you jump in it.
JOSS WHEDON: Exactly. I was going to say, I love the rhythm of that. It's just like, "Oh! Oh, a big gaping hole into Hell. Doot!" That's just the definition of a hero.
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I have no problem with the idea of the glow making them feel happy, even euphoric; it's the idea that it's somehow overriding their decision-making power that I disagree with. Like you said yourself, Buffy doesn't act afterwards like someone who was coerced into anything. She discovered that being physically close to Angel made her body glow and 'sing', and decided that she wanted to experiment with that rather than flee far away.
"I'm terrified you'll go. You'll leave before we have a chance to explore what this really is, this glow. What if, just once, the right thing to do is also the most wonderful?"
In reality, I think that Angel is responsible for what happened as a result of his actions.
Which appears to be that the bad guys wasted a year in elaborate schemes to "undermine Buffy's moral certainty" rather than just launching an all-out attack on her in issue one, like General Voll originally wanted.
From Buffy's POV, I interpret these panels the following way: "We found Twilight's lair, discovered that he is Angel, so there is nothing to worry about. Angel said he did the right thing - he knows best."
But that's not what happened. She discovered that Twilight is Angel and felt furiously angry and betrayed, not that "there is nothing to worry about". She tried to kill him. She told him to shut up and stop lying to her. She screamed at him, "Why did you put us through this fucking hell for the past year?" - and when does Buffy ever swear like that? She told him to get away from her.
But all the time this was happening, her body was starting to glow in response to his, and Angel was telling her that it wasn't so simple, that there was more going on than she thought. And reluctantly, despite herself, she believed him - because after all, her body really was starting to glow. And she'd somehow acquired superpowers; she could fly, she was almost invulnerable. How? What was going on? Angel seemed to understand more than anyone else, and like I said at the start, Buffy's usually pretty good at working out when someone is on her side or not. When she can trust someone.
Angel might not know "best", but in this particular situation he clearly knows more than Buffy, or Giles, or Willow do. And to quote the commentary from 'Lessons':
DAVID SOLOMON: You know, there's Buffy right there. You see a hole, you jump in it.
JOSS WHEDON: Exactly. I was going to say, I love the rhythm of that. It's just like, "Oh! Oh, a big gaping hole into Hell. Doot!" That's just the definition of a hero.
DAVID SOLOMON: "I'd better jump here."